THE  OUTLOOK   BEAUTIFUL 


&NIV,  JDF  CALIF.  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANGELES 


Lilian    Whiting's   Works 

THE    WORLD    BEAUTIFUL.       First 

Series 
THE  WORLD  BEAUTIFUL.     Second 

Series 
THE  WORLD   BEAUTIFUL.      Third 

Series 
AFTER  HER  DEATH.     The  Story  of 

a  Summer 

THE   SPIRITUAL   SIGNIFICANCE 
FROM   DREAMLAND   SENT.      Verses 

of  the  Life  to  Come 
KATE    FIELD  :    A  Record 
A  STUDY  OF  ELIZABETH  BARRETT 

BROWNING 

THE  WORLD  BEAUTIFUL  IN  BOOKS 
BOSTON   DAYS 
THE   LIFE   RADIANT 
THE  OUTLOOK  BEAUTIFUL 


THE 


OUTLOOK  BEAUTIFUL 


BY 
LILIAN   WHITING 

Author  of  "The  World  Beautiful,"  "The  Spiritual  Significance" 
"Boston  Days,"  etc. 


"  The  house  of  man's  own  soul  has  such  a  door  into  the 
Infinite  Beauty,  whether  he  has  found  it  or  not " 


BOSTON 

LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND   COMPANY 
1905 


Copyright,  1905, 
BY  LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND  COMPANY. 

All  rifktt  reserved 
Published  April,  1905 


THE    UNIVERSITY    PRESS,     CAMBRIDGE,     U.   S.  A. 


TO  YEN. 
ALBERT   BASIL  ORME   WILBERFORCE,  D.D. 

Archdeacon  of  Westminster  Abbey, 

WHOSE   MARVELLOUS    INSIGHT    INTO    SPIRITUAL    TRUTH    AND 

NOBLE    INTERPRETATION    OP    THE    DIVINE    TEACHING 

ENRICHES   AND   EXALTS   ALL    LIFE,  —  THESE   PAGES 

ARE    INSCRIBED     WITH    THE     AFFECTION 

AND    THE     REVERENCE     OF 

LILIAN   WHITING. 


2133879 


What  constitutes  a  new  force  of  finite  life  and  experience  ? 
A  new  sort  of  self-hood  ?  The  answer  is:  A  new  form  of 
self-hood  means  simply  the  appearance  of  a  new  type  of 
interest  in  the  world,  in  God,  and  in  finding  the  way  to 
self-expression.  —  PROFESSOR  JOSIAH  ROYCE. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

THE  DELUSION  OF  DEATH 3 

REALIZING  THE  IDEAL 17 

FRIENDSHIP  AS  A  DIVINE  RELATION    ...  32 

THE  ETHEREAL  WORLD 62 

THE  SUPREME  PURPOSE  OF  JESUS   ....  84 

AN  INWARD  STILLNESS 119 

THE  MIRACLE  MOMENT  MAY  DAWN  ON  ANY 

HOUR  .  141 


THE  OUTLOOK  BEAUTIFUL. 

The  delusion  of  Death  shall  pass, 

The  delusion  of  mounded  earth,  the  apparent  withdrawal; 
We  shall  shed  our  bodies,  and  upward  flutter  to  freedom. 

STEPHEN  PHILLIPS. 


With  what  body  do  they  come  ?  .  .  .  And  as  we  have 
borne  the  image  of  the  earthy,  we  shall  also  bear  the  image 
of  the  heavenly.  —  1  CORINTHIANS. 


THE   OUTLOOK  BEAUTIFUL. 


I  muse  on  joys  that  will  not  cease, 
Pure  spaces  clothed  in  living  beams, 

Pure  lilies  of  eternal  peace 

Whose  odors  haunt  my  dreams. 

jjHE  Angel  we  call  Death  may  be 
more  truly  regarded  as  the  Angel 
of  Life,  —  as  God's  messenger  who 
comes  to  guide  the  way  into  the  life  more 
abundant.  Into  the  Unseen  world,  whose 
beauty  eye  hath  not  seen  nor  hath  Th6  Delusion 
it  entered  into  the  heart  of  man  of  Death- 
to  conceive,  the  soul  goes  forth,  companioned 
with  infinite  tenderness  and  enfolded  in  the 
arms  of  Everlasting  Love.  No  one  can  come 
near  this  experience,  either  through  personal 
sorrow  or  sympathy  with  the  personal  sorrow 
3 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


of  others,  without  a  new  and  more  profound 
sense  of  the  consecrations  of  life.  Death  is 
so  marvellous  an  event  that  even  though  it 
is  the  universal  experience,  the  one  event 
absolutely  sure  and  inevitable  for  every  in- 
dividual, it  never  ceases  to  be  invested  with 
a  mysterious  sublimity.  Its  transcendent 
imagery  appears  almost  as  a  heavenly  vis- 
ion. It  brings  all  who  share  this  thrill  of 
sorrow  into  closer  relation  with  God,  "the 
Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  is 
the  resurrection  and  the  life,  in  whom  who- 
soever believeth  shall  live,  though  he  die." 
Not,  indeed,  as  the  end  of  life,  but  as  an 
event  in  life,  is  this  .  great  change  to  be 
regarded.  It  is  the  supreme  experience  of 
the  sojourn  on  earth.  It  emphasizes  a 
definite  crisis.  It  is  the  withdrawal  from 
the  visible  and  tangible  relations  of  the 
physical  world.  It  is  the  process  by  means 
of  which  the  spiritual  body  is  released  from 
the  physical  and  enters  on  the  next  higher 
4 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


plane  of  the  spiritual  universe.  For  this 
present  life,  too,  is  the  spiritual  world  in 
just  the  degree  that  man  lives  in  the  spirit, 
for  man  is  here  and  now  an  inhabitant  of 
both  worlds.  It  rests  with  himself  to  live 
"  as  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible."  This  more 
pure  and  exalted  life  is  perfectly  practicable, 
day  by  day,  in  all  the  stress  of  the  common 
life.  If  it  could  only  be  lived  in  the  cloister 
and  not  in  the  market-place,  it  would  be 
hardly  worth  discussion.  But  the  life  of  the 
spirit,  that  life  which  is  joy,  peace,  and  sweet- 
ness ;  the  life  of  liberal  sympathies,  of  finer 
comprehensions,  —  is  that  in  which  a  higher 
potency  and  more  applied  energy  can  be 
brought  to  bear  than  can  be  gained  from 
the  cruder  and  lower  phases  of  existence. 
For  religion  is,  in  its  true  reading,  spiritu- 
ality, and  spirituality  is  a  life  and  not  a 
litany. 

With  what  body  do  they  come  ?     With  the 
spiritual  body,  which  is  the  refined  and  ethe- 
5 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


real  counterpart  of  the  body  we  know  here. 
They  are  about  us  in  the  simple,  natural  way. 
"The  life  which  we  are  living  now  is  more 
aware  than  we  know  of  the  life  which  is 
to  come,"  said  Phillips  Brooks,  and  added : 
"Death,  which  separates  the  two,  is  not,  as 
it  has  been  so  often  pictured,  like  a  great 
thick  wall.  It  is  rather  like  a  soft  and  yield- 
ing curtain,  through  which  we  cannot  see, 
but  which  is  always  waving  and  trembling 
with  the  impulses  that  come  out  of  the  life 
which  lies  upon  the  other  side  of  it." 

With  what  body  do  they  come?     There  is 
a  natural  body  and  there  is  a  spiritual  body. 
Spirit  is  always  embodied.     Casting  off  the 
natural,  it  remains  in  the  spiritual  body,  —  a 
finer  and  an  ethereal  counterpart  of  the  nat- 
ural one.     The  specific  work  a  man  has  been 
doing  here  he  can  carry  on  with  increased 
power  and  energy  from  the  higher  plane. 
"  No  work  begun  shall  ever  pause  for  death," 
says  Robert  Browning. 
6 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


To  regard  death  in  the  sense  of  effacement 
from  participation  in  the  energies  of  life  is 
pagan  and  not  Christian.  The  change  is  an 
event  in  life,  as  going  to  another  country  may 
be,  save  that  it  involves  a  greater  individual 
change.  The  person  becomes  more  alive. 
He  achieves  a  higher  spirituality,  and  only 
to  the  degree  that  one  lives  the  life  of  the 
spirit  does  he  live,  in  any  real  sense,  at  all. 

"  What  is  man  ? "  questioned  Prof.  Ben- 
jamin Peirce.  "  What  a  strange  union  of 
matter  and  of  mind!  A  machine  for  con- 
verting material  into  spiritual  force  !  A  soul 
imprisoned  in  a  body !  " 

To  be  still  more  definite,  the  real  man  is 
the  soul  clothed  in  its  ethereal  body,  which 
is,  also,  during  his  sojourn  in  the  material 
world,  clothed  upon  with  a  physical  body. 
The  withdrawal  from  this  temporal  body, 
the  mere  physical  instrument,  is  that  process 
we  call  death,  and  it  is  simply  the  entrance 
on  the  "life  more  abundant." 
7 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


To  come  suddenly  into  a  vivid  realization 
of  this  supreme  event  of  death  with  its 
mystic  and  impressive  significance  is  to  re- 
construct all  one's  relations  with  those  still 
here.  How  one  feels  anew  the  beauty  of 
holiness!  How  one  feels  anew  the  sacred- 
ness  of  all  human  affections!  "Be  such  a 
man,  live  such  a  life,"  said  Phillips  Brooks, 
"that  if  every  man  were  such  as  you,  and 
every  life  a  life  like  yours,  this  earth  would 
be  paradise."  These  words  condense  the 
Christian  ideal  of  daily  living. 

For  life  is  a  trust  —  divinely  committed  to 
man.  It  is  the  most  priceless,  the  most  in- 
finitely valuable  of  possessions,  —  a  gift  of 
rare  powers  and  unlimited  resources,  to  be 
used  for  the  benefit  of  others,  and  thus,  in 
the  truest  way,  for  one's  self.  One  only 
lives  for  himself — in  the  best  way  —  when 
he  lives  for  others.  "  Herein  is  my  Father 
glorified,  that  ye  bear  much  fruit;  so  shall 
ye  be  my  disciples,"  said  the  Christ.  To 
8 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


"bear  much  fruit"  is  to  live  in  the  widest 
relations  with  human  life;  to  render  the 
service  needed  at  the  moment,  not  counting 
the  cost;  to  give  the  gift  that  is  needed, 
though  it  leave  one's  own  hands  empty. 
For  spiritual  treasure  is  infinite,  and  to  him 
who  lives  in  the  spirit  the  supply  is  sure. 
And  only  he  who  scattereth,  increaseth. 
Not  to  scatter  it  wantonly,  selfishly,  and 
thoughtlessly,  but  in  meeting  every  real 
need  that  appeals  to  one  with  the  very 
best  that  is  in  his  power,  —  that  is  to  live 
in  the  spirit,  and  thus  be  a  partaker  of 
all  the  infinite  and  boundless  riches  of  the 
Lord. 

These  are  among  the  lessons  of  life  that 
are  suggested  by  death.  They  thrill  and 
magnetize  toward  all  that  is  beautiful  and 
sacred.  The  strains  of  celestial  melody  seem 
to  linger,  and  one  hears,  as  in  a  dream  of 
heavenly  exaltation,  those  wonderful,  haunt- 
ing strains  of  melody,  — 
9 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


"  Angels,  ever  bright  and  fair, 
Take  her — take  her  to  thy  care." 

This  Outlook  Beautiful  into  the  next  stage 
of  the  infinite  progression  surrounds  one  with 
an  atmosphere  of  divine  tranquillity,  —  the 
peace  which,  as  Cardinal  Newman  has  said, 
"grows  from  the  life  of  God  in  the  soul 
which  is  the  same  as  the  life  of  pure  love. 
Why  should  a  soul  be  otherwise  than  tranquil 
which  seeks  for  nothing  but  what  comes  in 
the  Providence  of  God  ?  .  .  .  Let  us  seek  the 
grace  of  a  cheerful  heart,  an  even  temper, 
sweetness,  gentleness,  and  brightness  of  mind, 
as  walking  in  His  light  and  by  His  grace. 
Let  us  pray  to  Him,"  continued  the  Cardi- 
nal, "  to  give  us  the  spirit  of  ever-abundant, 
ever-springing  love,  which  overpowers  and 
sinks  away  the  vexations  of  life  by  its  own 
richness  and  strength,  and  which,  above  all 
things,  unites  us  to  Him  who  is  the  fountain 
and  the  centre  of  all  mercy,  loving-kindness, 
and  joy." 

10 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


May  we  not,  then,  consider  this  supreme 
and  universal  experience  of  human  life,  this 
event  we  call  death,  in  the  light  of  this  all- 
abounding  "  mercy,  loving-kindness,  and  joy  "  ? 
The  entrance  upon  earthly  life  is  by  birth ; 
the  entrance  on  the  next  stage  of  experience 
is  by  death  ;  each  is  a  part  of  the  absolutely 
universal  experience  of  every  human  being ; 
each  is  natural;  each  is  the  event  divinely 
appointed  by  God,  and  why  should  the 
latter  be  invested  with  any  gloom?  Faith 
alone  illumines  the  path;  but  if  to  faith 
can  be  added  knowledge,  spiritual  percep- 
tion is  thereby  supported  by  intellectual 
conviction.  When  Jesus  came  into  the  world 
two  thousand  years  ago,  divinely  commis- 
sioned by  the  Father  "  to  bring  life  and  im- 
mortality to  light,"  He  gave  every  pledge  and 
promise  of  the  beauty,  the  exaltation,  the 
heavenly  peace,  of  the  higher  conditions. 
The  developments  of  scientific  and  psychic 
truth  now  offer  a  vast  array  of  detail  ex- 
11 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


plaining  and  illustrating  the  truth  taught  by 
Jesus. 

The  poet's  felicitous  phrasing  of  "  the  delu- 
sion of  death  "  accurately  defines  the  impres- 
sion made  upon  the  mind  by  this  change. 
What  has  occurred  ?  The  ethereal  form  has 
withdrawn  from  the  physical  form.  The 
latter  lies  before  us,  —  inert,  lifeless,  —  creat- 
ing in  the  mind  a  "  delusion,"  indeed,  unless 
faith,  or  knowledge,  or  both  combined,  illu- 
minate and  explain  the  phenomenon.  The 
ethereal  body  is  in  a  state  of  far  higher  vibra- 
tion than  is  the  physical  body.  The  physical 
eye  is  limited  to  a  certain  range  of  vibration 
beyond  which  its  vision  cannot  penetrate. 
Even  this  general  range  differs  largely  among 
individuals,  some  being  able  to  perceive  ob- 
jects at  twice  the  distance  possible  to  the 
range  of  vision  by  others.  Now,  beyond  a 
certain  rate  of  vibration  the  physical  eye 
cannot  penetrate.  Beyond  a  certain  rate  of 
vibration  the  physical  ear  takes  no  cognizance 
12 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


of  sound.  The  highly  trained  and  sensitive 
ear  of  the  musician  will  catch  notes  higher 
than  those  heard  by  the  ordinary  person. 

So  it  is  seen  at  once  that  the  eye  and  the 
ear  of  the  physical  body  have  their  definite 
limitations.  When  the  ethereal  body  with- 
draws itself  from  the  physical,  it  may  stand 
beside  us,  and  we  do  not  perceive  it,  because 
its  subtile  delicacy  and  higher  rate  of  vibration 
transcend  the  physical  range  of  vision.  As 
Stephen  Phillips  has  said,  — 

"  I  tell  you,  we  are  fooled  by  the  eye  and  ear. 
These  organs  muffle  us  from  the  real  world." 

The  poet's  insight  is  in  exact  accord  with 
all  the  teachings  of  Jesus  as  given  us  in  the 
New  Testament. 

The  conditions  surrounding  him  who  has 
entered  into  the  ethereal  world  and  him  who 
remains  here  are  entirely  different,  although 
between  the  two  there  is  no  vast  gulf  fixed ; 
the  change  is  in  no  sense  revolutionary,  but, 
13 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


instead,  evolutionary.  It  is  simply  the  ex- 
tension of  the  horizon  line  as  one  journeys 
on.  But  the  next  great  consideration  is  this : 
man  even  while  on  earth  is  a  twofold  being 
and  an  inhabitant,  at  once,  of  both  the 
physical  and  the  ethereal  worlds.  These 
constitute  a  twofold  environment,  to  each 
of  which  he  responds  by  virtue  of  his  two- 
fold nature. 

To  him  who  is  living  the  life  of  the 
spirit,  —  the  life  of  intense  intellectual  activ- 
ity, of  abounding  spiritual  energy,  —  to  such 
a  man  the  ethereal  realm  is  more  real  than  is 
that  of  the  physical.  He  is  more  largely  in 
correspondence  with  its  nature.  All  great 
discoverers,  great  inventors,  great  projectors 
of  important  undertakings,  as  well  as  the 
artist,  the  poet,  the  teacher,  and  the  preacher, 
are  living  far  more  in  the  ethereal  than  in 
the  physical  world.  Tethered  here  by  means 
of  the  physical  body  —  which  is  simply  the 
essential  instrument  of  communication  and 
14 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


transmittal  with  the  physical  universe  — 
tethered  by  means  of  this  body,  a  proportion 
of  time  and  energy  is  inevitably  absorbed 
by  physical  demands.  The  proper  food, 
clothing,  and  shelter  of  the  physical  body 
are  primary  conditions  for  its  serving  as  a 
reliable  instrument  for  work.  It  must  be 
kept  in  repair.  /  When  the  intellectual  and 
spiritual  life  is  limited ;  when  this  higher 
energy  has  hardly  developed  beyond  the 
rudimentary  order,  —  then  it  requires  nearly 
all  to  merely  create  fair  conditions  for  the 
physical  life.  Multitudes  are  born  and  die 
who  achieve  little  beyond  this  while  on  earth. 
Multitudes  are  born  and  die  who  do  not 
even  achieve  this  while  on  earth.  But  we 
must  take  heart  of  grace  and  remember  that 
the  earthly  life  is  merely  one  evolutionary 
phase,  and  that  the  soul  has  before  it  an 
Eternity  in  which  to  progress  and  develop ; 
for  God  gives  to  each  the  heritage  of  in- 
finite time  and  infinite  love.  Yet,  as  Dr. 
15 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


William  T.  Harris  often  says,  "Realize  your 
ideals  quickly."  By  so  much  does  one  enter 
on  his  great  reward  in  beauty  and  joy  of 
life.  One  is  the  victim,  we  will  say,  of  a 
certain  recognized  fault;  he  realizes  that  he 
is  selfish,  or  impatient,  or  irritable,  or  prone 
to  procrastination,  which,  though  it  may  not 
be  enrolled  among  the  Seven  Deadly  Sins, 
is  almost  as  fatal  in  disastrous  results  as  any 
one  that  is  so  enrolled.  One  is  the  victim, 
we  will  say,  of  any  of  these  defective  con- 
ditions. Now,  by  a  supreme  effort  of  will 
he  may  just  as  well  overcome  his  defect 
at  once  —  make  any  hour  a  definite  crisis 
beyond  which  the  fault  shall  no  more  tyran- 
nize over  his  conduct  —  as  to  go  on  year 
after  year,  fully  resolving  to  correct  it  some- 
time and  somewhere,  but  never  achieving 
this  correction.  Let  him  realize  his  ideal 
quickly,  and  thus  enter  on  a  richer  period 
of  activity  and  beautiful  experience.  For 
immortal  life  is  simply  a  condition,  and  one 
16 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


that  may  be  entered  upon  increasingly  here 
and  now.  Columbus  demonstrated  its  qual- 
ity in  his  sublime  intuitive  grasp  of  a  new 
world  awaiting  discovery.  No  outward  biog- 
raphy of  the  great  discoverer  has  ever  so 
interpreted  to  us  his  real  self  as  is  offered 
by  Lowell  in  his  sublime  poem  entitled 
"  Columbus ; "  for  the  poet  enters  into  this 
ethereal  world,  —  this  more  real  world,  — 
and  translates  to  us  its  significance. 

The  power  of  realizing  ideals  quickly  is  that 
of  entering  more  and  more  into  this  higher 
life  of  the  spirit  which  is  the  Reauzing 
source  of  all  great  achievements  the  IdeaL 
in  physical  activities.  Where  did  Columbus 
receive  his  leading  that  guided  his  wonderful 
discovery  ?  Where  did  Morse  gain  his  insight 
into  ethereal  conditions  enabling  him  to  utilize 
the  ethereal  force,  electricity,  to  serve  as  a 
communicating  instrument  ?  Where  did  Cyrus 
Field  receive  his  inspiration  to  bridge  the 
ocean  with  instant  response?  Where  did 
2  17 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


Marconi  learn  to  make  our  coast  "  bristle 
with  towers  whose  fingers  pick  the  impalpable 
messages  off  the  clouds  "  ?  The  gigantic  en- 
gineering enterprises,  the  wonderful  inven- 
tions, the  marvellous  creations  of  man  in  every 
variety  of  human  endeavor,  are  simply  the  re- 
sult of  the  power  to  discern  and  to  enter  into 
the  mastery  of  these  more  intense  potencies 
of  the  ethereal  world.  This  it  is,  indeed,  to 
be  a  co-worker  with  God.  So  that  all  who 
are  living  the  higher  life  of  activity,  of  valu- 
able purpose  and  achievement,  of  moral  great- 
ness and  spiritual  exaltation,  are,  in  all  their 
varied  degrees,  living  in  touch  with  this 
higher  environment  that  surrounds  us,  — 
the  ethereal  realm.  For  it  is  not  only  by 
the  process  called  death  that  we  enter  into 
its  vast  possibilities.  The  ignorant  man  who 
dies  does  not  merely  by  the  withdrawal  from 
his  physical  body  enter  into  the  practical 
realization  of  all  these  higher  activities  to  a 
greater  degree  than  the  trained  and  educated 
18 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


man  who  is  still  tethered  to  the  physical 
world;  although  given  an  equal  degree  of 
intellectual  and  spiritual  development,  he 
who  enters  into  the  ethereal  world  by  with- 
drawal from  the  limitations  of  his  physi- 
cal body  can  better  participate  in  the  higher 
range  of  activities  than  he  who  is  still  im- 
prisoned, so  to  speak,  in  the  earthly  body. 
Still,  that  expression,  "  a  soul  imprisoned  in 
a  body,"  is  not  quite  adequate,  for  this  body 
may  be  made,  to  a  great  degree,  the  instru- 
ment of  expression  rather  than  the  mere 
case  that  is  the  limitation  and  repression. 
The  great  truth  must  constantly  be  borne  in 
mind  that  man  is  a  spiritual  being  now ; 
that  by  virtue  of  his  spiritual  nature  he  is 
an  inhabitant  of  the  spiritual  universe,  and 
does  not  necessarily  await  the  transition  by 
death  to  enter,  in  a  great  degree,  on  the 
nobler  possibilities  of  that  environment. 
/  The  question  constantly  recurs,  Where  is 
the  spiritual  world  ?  Where  is  the  man  who 
19 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


was  here  yesterday,  but  has  now  withdrawn 
from  his  physical  form  which  lies  lifeless 
before  us  ?  Where  is  he  now  ?  What  are 
his  immediate  experiences  ?  In  what  is  he 
engaged  ?  Is  he  cognizant  of  the  general 
trend  of  life  here  ?  These  questions  are  con- 
stantly asked.  Is  there  no  reply  ?  Must  this 
change  of  condition  remain  to  us  an  impene- 
trable mystery? 

May  we  not  claim,  first  of  all,  that  what 
we  call  "  the  spiritual  world,"  "  the  spiritual 
life,"  are  vast  inclusive  terms  and  include 
and  imply  an  eternity?  The  physical  realm 
is  one  part  of  the  "  spiritual  world,"  —  one 
condition,  one  probationary  period,  so  to  speak, 
in  it ;  while  the  ethereal  world  is  another  pro- 
bationary period  in  it,  leading  on  to  still  more 
subtile  and  refined  and  more  intensely  potent 
spiritual  conditions.  That  is,  the  spiritual 
universe  includes  the  life  on  earth  and  infinite 
degrees  of  successive  states  of  life  on  and  on 
in  infinite  progress.  So  for  clearness  let  us 
20 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


speak  of  the  next  state  of  being  that  succeeds 
the  physical  world,  or  the  physical  environ- 
ment,—  let  us  speak  of  it  as  the  ethereal 
world  and  the  ethereal  environment,  —  a  con- 
dition finer  than  the  present,  but  one  in  the 
endless  chain  of  increasingly  fine  and  high 
environments.  Spirit  includes  matter,  and  is 
not  differentiated  from  it.  Spirit  is  the  more 
refined  and  exalted  condition,  as  matter  is 
the  cruder  and  the  less  developed  condition. 
But  as  water,  ice,  steam,  and  vapor  are 
merely  different  conditions  of  the  same  ele- 
ment, so  are  spirit  and  matter.  Matter  is 
potentially  spirit.  It  is  on  the  way  to  be- 
come spirit;  and  that  which  is  spirit  has 
been  matter. 

Now  the  infinite  realm  of  psychic  science 
may  be  explored  with  increasing  results  of 
larger  knowledge,  as  are  those  that  attend 
the  exploration  of  stellar  science.  "Can 
man  by  searching  find  out  God?"  He  can 
add  to  his  understanding  of  God's  laws. 
21 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


Man  is  a  divine  being;  he  is  the  inheritor 
of  eternal  life ;  he  is  made  in  God's  image ; 
he  is  God's  child.  Let  him  claim  his  birth- 
right !  The  two  worlds,  so  called,  the 
physical  and  the  ethereal,  are  simply  two 
successive  conditions  in  the  all-enfolding 
and  all-circling  spirit  world,  and  they  inter- 
penetrate each  other.  Where,  then,  is  the 
ethereal  world  ?  It  is  here.  It  is  not  a  lo- 
cality ;  it  is  a  condition.  The  ethereal  world 
is  the  ethereal  side  of  the  physical  world. 
Conversely,  the  physical  world  is  the  physi- 
cal side  of  the  ethereal  world.  Between  the 
two  there  is  no  great  gulf  fixed.  The  change 
from  the  one  to  the  other  is  no  more  myste- 
rious than  is  the  change  from  infancy  into 
childhood;  from  childhood  to  youth;  from 
youth  to  manhood. 

When  we   turn   to   the   rationale   of  this 

change  we   call    death,   what   do   we  find  ? 

What   are   the   results,   to   date,   of  all   the 

varied  experiments  of  investigation  and   re- 

22 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


search  ?  The  past  half-century  has  been  one 
of  singularly  active  energy  in  this  line.  The 
phenomena  called  spiritualism  have  offered  a 
vast  range  of  testimony  establishing  the  exist- 
ence of  laws  outside  of,  and  beyond,  those 
known  to  the  physical  universe.  Theosophi- 
cal  inquiry  has  brought  to  the  general  knowl- 
edge a  vast  fund  of  special  detail  regarding 
this  complex  problem  of  life.  These  two 
lines  of  departure  may  be  studied  from  their 
own  literature  and  no  attempt  will  be  made 
here  to  enter  into  any  close  discussion  of  their 
phases,  which  range  from  much  that  is  signifi- 
cant and  true  to  much  that  is  totally  incon- 
sequential and  fraudulent.  In  a  general  way, 
however,  a  few  great  facts  have  been  estab- 
lished, and  these  facts  will  be  used  here 
without  effort  to  argue  or  prove,  —  as  argu- 
ment and  proof  are  available  to  every  indi- 
vidual who  cares  to  pursue  investigation  into 
the  nature  and  the  progress  of  the  soul. 
It  may  then  be  taken  as  a  truth,  for  the 
23 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


initial  point  of  departure,  that  the  soul  is 
clothed  in  a  subtile  body  which  could  not  be 
seen  by  the  physical  eye.  j  This  subtile  body  is 
encased  in  the  physical  body  which  we  see. 
This  subtile  (or  ethereal)  body  corresponds 
to  the  ethereal  world  as  the  physical  body 
corresponds  to  the  physical  world.  Again, 
the  ethereal  realm  interpenetrates  the  phys- 
ical realm  in  the  same  magnetic  and  close 
relation  that  exists  between  the  physical  and 
the  ethereal  bodies.  Now  the  physical  body 
is  in  relation  to  the  physical  world,  while  the 
ethereal  body  is  in  relation  to  the  ethereal 
world.  Here  we  have,  then,  the  rationale,  — 
a  twofold  body  and  a  twofold  world.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  body  has  several  divisions, 
or  states,  which  Theosophy  names  and  defines ; 
but  for  a  simple  and  immediate  view  those 
further  complications  may  be  left  for  indi- 
vidual study,  and  while  they  are  most  cer- 
tainly to  be  recognized,  they  will  not  be 
especially  emphasized  in  these  pages.  For 
24 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


we  are  now  concentrating  our  attention  alone 
upon  "the  delusion  of  death." 

It  may  well  be  emphasized  that  regarding 
life,  death,  and  immortality,  the  divine  Word 
is  sufficient  for  the  utmost  confidence,  the 
most  absolute  and  vital  faith.  Jesus  came 
to  bring  life  and  immortality  to  light;  He 
came  to  reveal  to  all  humanity  the  "  life 
more  abundant."  Faith  is  all-sufficient  for 
the  reply  to  this  entire  problem ;  and  still, 
if  one  may  add  to  his  faith  knowledge,  the 
faith  is  in  no  sense  lessened,  but  is  rather  in- 
formed with  an  even  fuller  intensity  of  con- 
viction. As  the  astronomer  may  explore  and 
constantly  achieve  larger  knowledge  of  the 
sidereal  universe;  as  the  geologist  may  con- 
stantly enlarge  his  knowledge  of  the  formation 
of  the  earth ;  as  the  archseologist  penetrates 
into  the  buried  life  of  the  historic  past,  —  so 
may  all  who  follow  Christ  press  forward  into 
a  larger  grasp  of  the  divine  laws  that  govern 
man's  relation  to  the  divine  universe. 
25 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


"  How  wonderful  is  Death! 
Death  and  his  brother,  Sleep." 

The  association  is  as  true  scientifically  as 
it  is  in  outer  semblance.  The  only  difference 
between  death  and  sleep  is,  that  in  the  former 
state  the  connection  between  the  physical  and 
the  ethereal  bodies  is  severed,  and  in  the  latter 
state  it  is  not.  As  in  sleep  the  connection 
remains,  the  ethereal  body  continues  to  ani- 
mate the  physical  body.  As  in  death  the 
connection  is  severed,  the  ethereal  body  can- 
not return  to  resume  its  connection  with  the 
physical  body.  Sleep  is  the  condition  pro- 
duced by  the  temporary  withdrawal  of  the 
ethereal  body  —  or  the  "  etheric  double  "  — 
from  the  physical  body.  As  this  ethereal 
body  is  an  inhabitant  of  the  ethereal  wTorld, 
it  requires  a  certain  proportion  of  time  in 
its  native  atmosphere  in  order  to  sustain  its 
vitality  and  continue  its  energy  through,  and 
by  means  of,  the  physical  instrument.  Sleep 
is  primarily  and  essentially  for  the  refreshment 
26 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


of  the  spirit  and  not  (primarily)  for  the  rest 
of  the  physical  body.  In  sleep  this  ethereal 
body  withdraws  from  the  denser  body  with 
which  it  is  connected  by  a  fine  magnetic 
cord,  or  line ;  and  if  this  is  broken,  death  is 
the  result ;  while  the  magnetic  connection 
remains,  life  in  this  world  continues.  Physi- 
cians offer  constant  evidence  of  this  separa- 
tion of  the  subtile  and  the  dense  bodies  under 
the  influence  of  anaesthetics.  This  is,  indeed, 
the  explanation  of  the  manner  in  which 
chloroform,  ether,  or  mesmeric  influence  en- 
ables the  patient  to  endure  surgical  opera- 
tions, —  as  they  produce  the  separation  of 
the  "  etheric  double  "  from  the  physical  body 
which  is  operated  upon.  This  fact  also  re- 
veals that  the  nerves  and  vital  organs  belong 
to  the  ethereal  body  rather  than  to  the 
physical,  and  that  when  the  connection  be- 
tween the  two  is  broken  and  death  ensues, 
it  reveals  that  all  these  vital  organs  remain 
with  the  ethereal  body  in  the  ethereal  world 
27 


The  Outlook  Beautiful 


and  are  not  discarded  with  the  physical  body. 
Their  outer  case,  so  to  speak,  is  a  part  of  the 
physical  body ;  but  their  vitality  remains  with 
the  subtile  body,  even  as  the  withdrawal  of  the 
electric  current  from  the  trolley  car  leaves  all 
the  mechanism  with  the  car,  but  the  motive- 
power  is  not  there. 

It  is  the  complete  being  which,  having 
withdrawn  from  the  physical  body,  stands 
in  the  ethereal  world.  The  heart  beats ; 
the  lungs  inhale  the  ethereal  air;  the  eyes 
see;  the  ears  hear;  the  voice  speaks;  and 
the  difference  between  this  condition  and 
that  of  the  physical  world  is  simply  the 
difference  of  degree.  The  new  condition  is 
that  of  a  wonderful  exhilaration  of  freedom ; 
of  a  far  more  clear  and  intense  consciousness. 
The  physical  body  is  at  best  a  somewhat 
defective  and  clumsy  vehicle.  It  limits  the 
inherent  energy  of  thought  even  while  it  is 
its  only  instrument  of  expression  in  its  rela- 
tions with  the  physical  world.  In  that 
28 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


remarkable  work  entitled  "  A  Study  in  Con- 
sciousness" by  Annie  Besant  we  find  this 
truth  thus  formulated:  — 

"  The  ordinary  waking  consciousness  of  a  man 
is  the  consciousness  working  through  the  physical 
brain  at  a  certain  rate  imposed  by  it,  conditioned 
by  all  the  conditions  of  that  brain,  limited  by 
all  its  limitations,  balked  by  the.  varying  ob- 
structions it  oifers,  checked  by  a  clot  of  blood, 
silenced  by  the  decay  of  tissue.  At  every  mo- 
ment the  brain  hinders  its  manifestations,  while 
at  the  same  time  it  is,  on  the  physical  plane, 
its  only  enabling  instrument  of  manifestation. 

"  When  the  consciousness,  turning  its  attention 
away  from  the  external  physical  world,  ignores 
the  denser  part  of  the  physical  brain,  and  uses 
only  the  etheric  portions  thereof,  its  manifesta- 
tions at  once  change  in  character.  The  creative 
imagination  disports  itself  in  etheric  matter,  and 
drawing  on  its  accumulated  contents,  obtained 
from  the  external  world  by  its  denser  servant, 
it  arranges  them,  dissociates,  and  recombines 
them  after  its  own  fancies,  and  creates  the  lower 
worlds  of  dream. 

29 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


"  When  it  casts  aside  for  a  while  its  ethereal 
garment,  turning  its  attention  away  completely 
from  the  physical  world,  and  shedding  its  fetters 
of  physical  matter,  it  roams  through  the  astral 
world  at  will,  or  drifts  through  it  unconsciously, 
turning  all  its  attention  to  its  own  contents, 
receiving  many  impacts  from  that  astral  world, 
which  it  ignores  or  accepts  according  to  its  stage 
of  evolution,  or  its  humor  of  the  moment.  If 
it  should  manifest  itself  to  an  outside  observer  — 
as  may  happen  in  trance-conditions  —  it  shows 
powers  so  superior  to  those  it  manifested  when 
imprisoned  in  the  physical  brain,  that  such  an 
observer,  judging  only  by  physical  experiences, 
may  well  regard  it  as  a  different  consciousness. 

"Still  more  is  this  the  case  when,  the  astral 
body  being  thrown  into  trance,  the  Bird  of 
Heaven  shows  itself  soaring  into  loftier  regions, 
and  its  splendid  flight  so  enchants  the  observer 
that  he  deems  it  a  new  being,  and  no  longer 
the  same  entity  as  crawled  in  the  physical  world. 
Yet  truly  is  it  ever  one  and  the  same ;  the 
differences  are  in  the  materials  with  which  it  is 
connected,  and  through  which  it  works,  and  not 
in  itself." 

•30 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


The  event  we  call  death  does  not,  of  itself, 
work  any  miraculous  change.  It  introduces 
the  individual  into  new  conditions,  —  con- 
ditions more  favorable  to  the  growing  signifi- 
cance of  life.  The  mere  fact  of  withdrawing 
from  the  physical  does  not,  of  itself,  work 
any  instantaneous  miracle.  The  essential 
self  persists.  The  dominant  strain  of  inter- 
ests and  attractions  remains  the  same.  But 
if  these  interests  are  of  the  lower  order  they 
are  thereby  out  of  harmony  with  the  higher 
and  more  subtile  environment,  and  one  so 
weighted  is  not  thus  prepared  to  enter  on 
the  joys  of  the  new  life,  as  is  he  whose 
aspirations  are  spiritualized  and  who  finds 
his  interests  in  the  intellectual  and  spiritual 
realities.  Of  these  higher  realities  a  leading 
joy  is  to  be  found  in  all  social  relations,  in 
loves  and  friendships. 

"  Art  symbolizes  heaven  ; 
But  love  is  God,  and  makes  heaven." 

Friendship  is  itself  one  of  the  divine  re- 
31 


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lations.     "My  friends  have  come  to  me  un- 
sought,"  says    Emerson.      "  The   great   God 
gave    them    to    me.      By    oldest 

Friendship 

as  a  Divine  right,  by  the  divine  affinity  of 
Eelation.  .  . 

virtue  with  itself,  I  find  them,  or 

rather,  not  I,  but  the  Deity  in  me  and  in 
them,  both  deride  and  cancel  the  thick  walls 
of  individual  character,  relation,  age,  sex  and 
circumstance,  at  which  he  usually  connives, 
and  now  make  many  one. 

"  The  end  of  friendship  is  a  commerce,  the 
most  strict  and  homely  that  can  be  found  ; 
more  strict  than  any  of  which  we  have  ex- 
perience. It  is  for  aid  and  comfort  through 
all  the  relations  and  passages  of  life  and 
death.  It  is  fit  for  serene  days,  and  grace- 
ful gifts,  and  country  rambles,  but  also  for 
rough  roads  and  hard  fare,  shipwreck,  poverty, 
and  persecution." 

That  friendship  "  is  for  aid  and  comfort 
through  all  the  relations  and  passages  of  life 
and  death ; "  that  it  is  not  only  "  fit  for 
32 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


(  serene  days  and  graceful  gifts,  and  country 
rambles,"  but  also  "for  rough  roads  and 
hard  fare,  shipwreck,  poverty,  and  persecu- 
tion," is  the  only  true  view  to  take  of  a  re- 
lation that  is  not  merely  social  charm  and 
privilege  and  joy  and  sweetness,  but  is,  in  its 
deeper  sense,  of  the  order  of  divine  relation- 
ships, and  one  that  bears  all  tests  and  all 
burdens  and  sacrifices  that  may  fall  upon  it. 
Friendship  is  for  sorrow  as  well  as  for  joy ;  it 
is  for  hardship  as  well  as  for  privilege.  In 
any  true  sense  one  who  is  a  friend  must  be 
"  a  discerner  of  spirits,"  so  to  speak ;  he 
must  be  able  to  see,  in  another,  not  only 
the  man  —  or  woman  —  that  is,  but  the 
angel  that  may  be  —  that  will  be,  sometime 
and  somewhere,  in  the  long  march  of  evolu- 
tionary progress.  Of  course  there  is  an 
abundance  —  and  to  spare  —  of  agreeable, 
evanescent  companionship,  pleasant  while  it 
lasts  and  with  no  claim  to  permanency,  that 
holds  in  it  no  such  elements  as  these;  that 
3  33 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


holds  in  itself  no  staying  power;  that  is 
pleasant  enough  while  the  sun  shines ;  that  is 
"fit  for  serene  days  and  graceful  gifts,"  but 
vanishes  before  "  rough  roads  and  hard  fare ; " 
and  this,  too,  while  it  has  no  claim  to  canoni- 
zation, is  yet  one  of  the  pleasant  surface- 
experiences  of  life,  and  the  surface  has  a 
legitimate  place  as  well  as  the  profounder 
depths.  Only,  do  not  let  us  mistake  the 
one  for  the  other.  Let  us  not  "  call  nothing 
something,  and  run  after  it."  That  is  not 
worth  while. 

The  real  friend  is  a  born  "  discerner  of 
spirits."  He  sees  the  higher  self  of  the  other 
as  the  real  and  the  permanent  individual, 
and  does  not  lay  too  much  stress  on  —  or  take 
too  greatly  to  heart  —  transient  and  passing 
defects  and  faults.  For  all  that  is  noble 
and  good  in  a  man's  character  is  of  the  per- 
manent and  the  immortal  life.  It  persists, 
it  develops,  it  increases.  All  that  is  trivial 
and  defective  and  evil  falls  off  and  dies. 
34 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


It  has  in  it  no  element  that  inherits  immortal 
life. 

"  For  evil  in  its  nature  is  decay, 
And  any  hour  may  blot  it  all  away." 

Michael  Angelo  declared  he  saw  the  statue 
in  the  block  of  marble.  The  real  friend 
sees  the  angel  in  the  human  being, — the 
angel  that  he  is  on  the  way  to  become. 
Discerning  this,  he  recognizes  the  angelic 
qualities,  even  though  latent.  Their  active 
assertion  over  the  man's  life  is  only  a  ques- 
tion of  time,  and  any  true  friendship  implies 
the  recognition  of  this  truth.  For  always 
is  it  true  that  any  real  love 

"  .  .  .is  never  blind 

But  rather  gives  an  added  light ; 
An  inner  vision,  quick  to  find 

The  beauties  hid  from  common  sight. 

"  I  see  the  feet  that  fain  would  climb ; 

You,  but  the  steps  that  turn  astray  ; 
I  see  the  soul,  unharmed,  sublime  ; 
You,  but  the  garment  and  the  clay. 
35 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


"  Your  unanointed  eyes  may  fall 

On  him  who  fills  my  soul  with  light ; 
You  do  not  see  my  friend  at  all, 

You  see  what  hides  him  from  your  sight." 

Now  all  friendship  worthy  the  name  is  for 
mutual  aid  and  help  and  progress  as  well 
as  for  mutual  pleasure.  It  is  the  relation 
in  which  there  is  mutual  tolerance ;  in  which 
the  fault  of  a  moment  is  not  laid  up  in 
memory;  in  which  impatience  or  irritability 
—  however  unreasonable  —  is  seen  to  be  a 
condition,  not  a  crime,  and  to  be  met  with 

I      ^  f_  _ _     ^  -       -          -*^^ 

the  serenity  that  sees  beyond.  "  Irritability 
is  a  sin  of  the  flesh,"  truly  said  Mrs.  Stowe. 
It  is  the  result  of  fatigue,  annoyance,  ex- 
hausted nerves,  —  of  a  thousand  transient 
influences  or  circumstances;  and  while  it  is 
not  to  be  held  as  a  beautiful  and  desirable 
exhibition  of  one's  self,  neither  is  it  to  be  un- 
duly a  cause  for  offence.  The  friend  "  comes 
unsought,"  —  he  comes  as  the  fulfilment  of 
a  divine  relation. 

36 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


All  that  comprises  the  world  of  thought, 
of  aspiration,  enters  into  and  creates  spiritu- 
ality. 

The  Rev.  W.  Stainton  Moses,  a  clergyman 
of  the  Church  of  England,  was  an  opposer 
of  spiritualistic  phenomena,  and  he  became 
convinced  of  it  by  means  of  the  automatic 
writing  of  his  own  hand,  which  was  con- 
trolled by  a  very  lofty  and  pure  intelligence, 
who  signed  himself  "Imperator."  There  is 
a  book  called  "  Spirit  Teachings,"  composed 
of  these  communications  of  "  Imperator  "  to 
Mr.  Moses,  and  it  is  well  worth  reading. 
"  Imperator "  gives  such  teachings  as  this, 
for  instance :  — 

"Man  is  a  spirit,  temporarily  enshrined  in  a 
body  of  flesh ;  a  spirit  with  a  spiritual  body, 
which  is  to  survive  severance  from  the  earth 
body.  This  spiritual  body  is  the  object  of  train- 
ing in  this  sphere  of  probation  to  develop  and 
fit  for  its  life  in  the  sphere  of  spirit.  This  spirit- 
ual being,  temporarily  enshrined  in  the  body  of 
37 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


earth,  we  regard  as  a  conscious,  responsible  intel- 
ligence, with  duties  to  perform,  with  responsi- 
bilities, with  capacities,  with  accountability,  and 
with  power  of  progress  or  retrogression.  It  has 
its  opportunities  of  development,  its  degrees  of 
probation,  its  phases  of  training,  and  its  helps 
in  progression  if  it  will  use  them.  Man,  as  a 
responsible  spiritual  being,  has  duties  which  con- 
cern himself,  his  fellow  man,  and  God." 

The  life  in  the  physical  and  in  the  ethe- 
real realms  is  so  interpenetrated  that  a  clear 
realization  of  these  relations  endows  the  in- 
dividual with  added  power.  For  all  are 
co-workers  with  God.  He  that  maketh  the 
winds  His  messengers  also  maketh  all  those 
who  lift  up  their  hearts  to  Him  —  whether  in 
the  physical  or  in  the  ethereal  world  —  to 
become  His  helpers  and  ministers.  The 
recognition  of  the  law  is  the  condition  of 
entering  into  its  beauty.  The  Bible  is  full 
of  these  instances.  "  Keep  the  will  united  to 
the  will  of  God  and  failure  and  defeat  and 
38 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


sorrow  are  impossible,  for  God  is  invincible." 
Those  who  meet  in  their  common  faith  and 
aspiration  are  mutual  helpers,  and  at  any 
moment  one  may  ask  the  aid  of  a  friend  in 
the  'ethereal  world  and  receive  strength  and 
guidance  that  God  gives,  but  gives  through 
His  messenger  and  co-worker. 

The  great  oratorio  of  "  Elijah "  offers  not 
only  the  entrancing  melody  of  Mendelssohn, 
but  with  every  repetition  the  sublime  lesson 
of  absolute  trust  in  the  Divine  leading  must 
be  more  and  more  impressively  felt  by  all  who 
listen  to  it.  For  instance,  take  such  passages 
as  these:  — 

"  Angels.  —  Lift  thine  eyes  to  the  mountains, 
whence  cometh  help.  Thy  help  cometh  from  the 
Lord,  the  maker  of  heaven  and  earth.  He  hath 
said  thy  foot  shall  not  be  moved ;  thy  Keeper 
will  never  slumber. 

"Angels.  —  He,  watching  over  Israel,  slumbers 
not,  nor  sleeps.     Shouldst  thou,  walking  in  grief, 
languish,  He  will  quicken  thee. 
89 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


"An  Angel. — Arise,  Elijah,  for  thou  hast  a 
long  journey  before  thee.  Forty  days  and  forty 
nights  shalt  thou  go,  to  Horeb,  the  mount 
of  God. 

"Elijah.  —  0  Lord,  I  have  labored  in  vain; 
yea,  I  have  spent  my  strength  for  naught ! 

"  0  that  Thou  wouldst  rend  the  heavens,  that 
Thou  wouldst  come  down;  that  the  mountains 
would  flow  down  at  Thy  presence,  to  make  Thy 
name  known  to  Thine  adversaries,  through  the 
wonders  of  Thy  works ! 

"  0  Lord,  why  hast  Thou  made  them  err 
from  Thy  ways,  and  hardened  their  hearts  that 
they  do  not  fear  Thee !  0  that  I  now  might 
die! 

"  0  rest  in  the  Lord  ;  wait  patiently  for  Him, 
and  He  shall  give  thee  thy  heart's  desires.  Com- 
mit thy  way  unto  Him,  and  trust  in  Him,  and 
fret  not  thyself  because  of  evil  doers. 

"  He  that  shall  endure  to  the  end  shall  be 
saved. 

"Elijah.  —  Night  falleth  round  me,  0  Lord! 
Be  Thou  not  far  from  me  !  hide  not  Thy  face,  O 
Lord,  from  me ;  my  soul  is  thirsting  for  Thee,  as 
a  thirsty  land. 

40 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


"  An  Angel.  —  Arise  now  !  get  thee  without, 
stand  on  the  mount  "before  the  Lord  ;  for  there 
His  glory  will  appear  and  shine  on  thee !  Thy 
face  must  be  veiled,  for  He  draweth  near." 

The  entire  story  of  Elijah  is  that  of  the 
utmost  literalness  of  faith  in  God,  and  of 
simple,  natural,  direct  communion  with  Him. 
The  Lord  commanded  him  to  go  on  a  journey, 
promising  that  the  ravens  should  bring  him 
food,  and  that  the  widow's  cruse  of  oil  and 
barrel  of  meal  should  not  fail.  In  implicit 
trust  Elijah  set  forth.  The  angelic  hosts 
assured  him :  "  For  He  shall  give  His  angels 
charge  over  thee ;  that  they  shall  protect  thee 
in  all  the  ways  thou  goest ;  that  their  hands 
shall  uphold  and  guide  thee,  lest  thou  dash 
thy  foot  against  a  stone."  He  came  to  the 
widow  who  implored  him  to  restore  her  dead 
son,  and  his  prayer  was  answered.  The  widow 
exclaimed :  "  Now  by  this  I  know  that  thou 
art  a  man  of  God,  and  that  His  word  in  thy 
mouth  is  the  truth.  What  shall  I  render 
41 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


to  the  Lord,  for  all  His  benefits  to  me?" 
And  the  answer  came  :  "  Thou  shalt  love  the 
Lord  thy  God  with  all  thine  heart,  and  with 
all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  might."  Then 
comes  that  transcendent  offering  of  himself  to 
God :  "  This  day  let  it  be  known  that  Thou 
art  God,  and  I  am  Thy  servant ! "  and  the 
angelic  chorus  replies :  "  Cast  thy  burden 
on  the  Lord,  and  He  shall  sustain  thee." 
Elijah  invokes  Him  who  maketh  His  angels 
spirits ;  whose  ministers  are  flaming  fire ; 
and  he  invokes  destruction  upon  all  who 
have  transgressed  against  God.  But  Elijah's 
way  now  stretches  before  him  into  the 
gloom  and  wilderness.  He  is  in  despair. 
"  It  is  enough,  0  Lord,"  he  says ;  "  now  take 
away  my  life,  for  I  am  not  better  than  my 
fathers.  I  desire  to  live  no  longer ;  now  let 
me  die,  for  my  days  are  but  vanity ! "  He 
continues :  "  I  have  been  very  jealous  for 
the  Lord  God  of  Hosts ;  for  the  children  of 
Israel  have  broken  Thy  covenant,  thrown 
42 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


down  Thine  altars,  and  slain  Thy  prophets 
with  the  sword :  and  I,  even  I  only,  am  left ; 
and  they  seek  my  life  to  take  it  away."  Then 
came  to  the  prophet  those  marvellous  and  in- 
vincible assurances  out  of  the  unseen  world ; 
he  is  enjoined  to  lift  his  eyes  to  the  moun- 
tains; he  is  assured  that  help  cometh  from 
the  Lord ;  that  his  foot  shall  not  be  moved ; 
that  God,  who  watcheth  over  Israel,  neither 
slumbers  nor  sleeps,  and  is  warned  of  a  long 
journey  before  him.  At  this,  Elijah's  courage 
falters:  "I  have  labored  in  vain,"  he  ex- 
claims, "  for  I  have  spent  my  strength  for 
naught,"  and  he  begs  that  he  may  die.  But 
the  angelic  hosts  again  are  around  him  with 
sustaining  assurances :  "  Oh,  rest  in  the  Lord  ! " 
they  enjoin  him;  "wait  patiently  for  God," 
they  entreat  him,  and  add  the  promise  :  "  He 
shall  give  thee  thy  heart's  desires.  Commit 
thy  way  unto  %Him,"  urge  the  heavenly  mes- 
sengers to  Elijah,  "  commit  thy  way  unto  Him, 
and  trust  in  Him,  and  fret  not  thyself  because 
43 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


of  evil  doers,"  and  then  comes  the  promise : 
"  He  that  endureth  to  the  end  shall  be  saved." 

Still,  Elijah  is  sad,  and  he  feels  the  night 
falling  around  him.  "Be  thou  not  far  from 
me,  O  Lord,"  he  implores,  and  the  marvel- 
lously triumphant  answer  comes :  "  Arise 
now:  stand  on  the  mount  before  the  Lord; 
for  then  His  glory  will  appear  and  shine  on 
thee!"  And  Elijah  believed  and  caught 
the  glory  of  the  vision.  His  spirit  rose  in 
transcendent  strength,  and  he  sublimely  ex- 
claimed :  "  I  go  on  my  way  in  the  strength 
of  the  Lord;  my  heart  is  glad;  my  glory 
rejoiceth."  Then  we  are  told  that  the 
words  of  Elijah  "appeared  like  burning 
torches ; "  that  "  mighty  kings  by  him  were 
overthrown ; "  that  he  "  stood  on  the  Mount 
of  Sinai  and  heard  the  judgments  of  the 
future." 

The  entire  story  is  the  most  vivid  and 
extraordinary  lesson  of  the  power  of  faith  in 
God:  the  lesson  that  absolutely  nothing  in 
44 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


the  universe  can  withstand  the  power  that 
man  acquires  and  achieves  and  makes  his 
own,  by  uniting  his  own  will  with  the  divine 
will,  —  by  putting  his  trust  in  God.  It  is 
the  supreme  measuring  of  human  life ;  it  is 
the  reason  of  the  soul's  journey  through  this 
world,  —  in  order  to  learn,  by  sorrow  and  by 
joy,  by  all  mingled  and  varied  experiences, 
that  the  only  strength,  light,  and  leading 
which  can  impart  usefulness,  success,  and  per- 
sonal joy  is  the  strength  that  is  gained  from 
the  Divine  through  prayer  and  through  faith. 
Prayer  and  faith  create  the  open  door 
between  those  in  the  Seen  and  those  in  the 
Unseen.  The  next  condition  beyond  this 
present  one  is  in  close  and  harmonious  re- 
lation to  our  own,  and  it  is  far  more  defin- 
able, far  more  natural,  so  to  speak,  than 
many  of  us  have  dreamed.  The  ethereal 
realm  is  one  to  which  the  physical  realm 
corresponds  in  the  sense  that  each  has 
scenery ;  mountains,  hills,  lakes,  rivers ;  each 
45 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


has  cities,  schools,  churches,  temples ;  art, 
literature,  science,  and  ethics.  Each  is  con- 
ditioned by  progress.  Man  by  reason  of 
his  twofold  nature  is  an  inhabitant  here 
and  now,  even,  of  both  these  realms.  The 
physical  body  tethers  him  to  this  world. 
His  spiritual  nature  relates  him  to  the 
spiritual  world.  Death  is  merely  the  pro- 
cess of  leaving  the  physical  case  in  the 
physical  world  to  its  decay  and  disintegra- 
tion ;  while  the  freed  spirit,  in  its  ethereal 
body,  enters  on  its  new  round  of  conscious 
existence  in  the  ethereal  realms. 

Now,  bearing  in  mind  the  twofold  nature 
of  the  world  we  are  in,  the  twofold  nature 
of  man,  our  third  contemplation,  that  of 
man  after  death,  becomes  clear.  Everything 
in  nature  has  its  ethereal  as  well  as  its 
physical  side,  —  forests,  mountains,  oceans, 
rivers ;  therefore  the  ethereal  world  has  its 
scenery,  its  landscapes,  its  architectural  crea- 
tions, and  its  cities  and  occupations.  Its 
46 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


life  is  that  of  intellectual  and  moral  progress. 
Its  occupations  include  art,  literature,  preach- 
ing, lecturing,  teaching,  —  all  that,  in  a  more 
rudimentary  way,  we  see  and  enter  into  here 
is  carried  on  there  with  a  greater  force 
and  elevation.  As  Phillips  Brooks  so  well 
said,  "  Death  is  not  the  end  of  life,  but  only 
an  event  in  life." 

The  spiritual  being  dwelling  in  the  ethereal 
world  remembers  perfectly  his  friends  who 
have  not  yet  been  released  from  the  physical 
world,  and  thus  spirit  signals  to  spirit.  As 
telepathy  is  now  an  accepted  law,  —  as 
absolute  a  fact  as  is  telegraphy,  —  and  as 
telepathy  is  the  language  of  the  spirit,  it 
is  as  easy  to  realize  how  it  works  between 
those  in  the  seen  and  in  the  unseen  as  it 
is  to  realize  that  it  may  work  between  two 
persons  in  Boston  and  New  York  respec- 
tively. Communication  by  means  of  what 
is  known  as  mediumship  is  frequently  true, 
but  on  that  phase  I  will  not  touch.  If 
47 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


telepathy  is  a  law,  it  is  the  divinely  appointed 
means  of  communion  between  those  who  are 
separated  by  death. 

Evidential  communications  from  those  in 
the  unseen  reveal  that  life  in  the  ethereal 
world  is  an  active,  progressive  state;  that 
special  tastes  or  talents  denied  development 
here  are  there  encouraged  and  assisted.  The 
artist  continues  to  produce  his  creations  of 
beauty ;  the  scientist  has  greater  facilities 
for  exploring  the  universe ;  the  writer,  the 
preacher,  the  teacher,  continue  their  special 
avocations.  There  are  temples  for  worship; 
there  are  homes  in  which  those  near  to  each 
other  dwell  together.  There  are,  apparently, 
keener  sympathies  and  swifter  comprehen- 
sions than  are  commonly  found  here ;  but 
it  is  all  one  life,  —  the  life  that  is  and  that 
which  is  to  come,  —  but  evolutionary  in  its 
progressive  development. 

This  ethereal  realm  has  infinite  resources 
in  these  finer  potencies  of  energy,  which  we 
48 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


draw  upon  to  an  increasing  degree  in  our 
utilization  of  electricity  and  of  air  currents, 
as  in  wireless  telegraphy.  As  this  ethereal 
world  interpenetrates  the  physical;  as  man, 
by  virtue  of  his  twofold  nature,  is  an  inhabi- 
tant of  both,  —  it  is  not  strange  that  he  dis- 
covers and  utilizes  more  and  more  these 
higher  potencies.  Our  horizon  line  of  "the 
unknown"  constantly  recedes,  and  we  realize 
that  "  the  unknown  "  is  not  the  unknowable. 

Thus  it  may  be  said  that  psychic  research, 
in  its  larger  significance,  has  revealed  a  rational 
relation  between  the  life  before  and  the  life 
after  death.  It  has  added  to  our  faith 
knowledge;  and  this  knowledge  banishes  all 
fear  of  death ;  it  leads  us  to  realize  the  con- 
tinuity of  life.  It  enhances  our  earnestness 
in  all  endeavor,  and  emphasizes  to  us  the 
truth  that  life  is  an  infinite  chain  of  progress- 
ive experiences. 

Annie  Besant  has  said  that  the  material 
for  progress  after  death  is  all  that  has  been 
4  49 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


thought  and  striven  after  while  in  the  physi- 
cal world.  "Every  aspiration,  every  desire 
for  human  service,  every  endeavor  that  you 
have  made  for  human  good,  come  back  to 
you  there  as  the  material  out  of  which  your 
progress  will  be  fashioned.  Think  what  it 
means !  So  many  of  you  have  hearts  larger 
than  your  opportunities,  feelings  which  go 
beyond  your  practical  capacities.  Do  not 
let  your  heart  break,  you  who  are  tender  to 
the  sorrow  of  the  world.  Sympathize  as 
much  as  you  can ;  feel  as  much  as  you  can ; 
be  sorry  for  the  sorrowful ;  and  do  not  shrink 
from  the  pain  of  the  human  sympathy.  For 
every  feeling  that  you  have  had  during  your 
earth-life  will  come  back  to  you  in  your  life 
in  the  heavenly  places ;  and  you  will  build  it, 
not  into  futile  hope  as  you  may  have  thought 
but  into  capacity  to  achieve ;  when  your  time 
comes  to  be  born  again  into  the  world,  you 
will  come  back  to  it  with  your  heart  and  your 
brain  full  of  schemes  for  human  welfare  that 
50 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


you  will  be  able  to  carry  out,  every  hope 
turned  into  a  power,  and  every  pulse  of 
sympathy  into  a  faculty  to  help.  Not  one 
throb  of  sorrow  will  be  lost;  you  will  find 
it  in  the  treasure-house  of  heaven  to  work 
into  power — power  to  conceive  and  to  bless. 
That  is  part  of  the  good  news  we  bring  from 
the  other  side  —  and  how  good  it  is  only 
those  know  whose  hearts  have  almost  broken 
in  facing  the  misery  of  the  world.  Not  one 
of  you  need  pass  through  death's  gateway 
without  carrying  with  you  material  of  that 
splendid  kind  which,  in  the  heavenly  places, 
you  will  thus  weave  into  faculty  and  power. 

"  And  so  also  with  every  emotion  that  you 
have  so  often  on  this  side  of  death.  Emo- 
tions of  love  give,  perhaps,  as  much  pain  as 
pleasure  —  sometimes  even  more.  Do  not 
shrink  from  the  pain  which  comes  from  a 
noble  love,  even  though  it  be  unrequited. 
The  love  of  the  mother  for  the  son  who 
almost  breaks  her  heart,  the  love  of  the 
51 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


father  for  the  daughter  who  has  wandered 
far  from  home,  the  love  of  husband  for  wife, 
or  wife  for  husband,  where  due  return  has 
not  been  given,  the  love  of  friend  for  friend, 
outliving  even  neglect  and  betrayal  —  those 
loves  come  back  to  us  in  the  higher  worlds 
and  enrich  and  glorify  our  heaven.  For  there 
is  not  one  human  soul  for  whom  we  have 
kept  our  love  untouched  and  unbroken,  not 
one  human  soul  that  here  we  may  seem  to 
have  lost,  that  there  we  shall  not  find.  All 
souls  that  love  each  other  find  each  other  out 
in  heaven,  for  the  bond  of  love  is  a  bond  over 
which  the  icy  hand  of  death  has  no  power ; 
love  is  immortal,  love  is  divine ;  and  the  son 
that  has  broken  his  mother's  heart  in  his 
manhood,  loved  his  mother  when  he  was  a 
little  boy  playing  round  her  knees :  and  that 
love-tie  is  only  submerged,  and  will  re-assert 
itself  on  the  other  side  of  death.  So  that 
where  your  love  becomes  a  pain  instead  of 
a  joy,  cling  to  it  and  clasp  it  to  your  heart, 
52 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


and  it  will  bring  you  to  the  place  of  joy. 
And  in  that  world  of  love  and  of  peace  the 
power  to  love  will  grow  with  the  loves  which 
here  have  been  disappointed ;  and  every  dis- 
appointed love  is  a  jewel  which  will  be  worked 
up  into  the  great  mosaic  of  faculty  that  we 
shall  make  in  heaven. 

"  Pass  from  the  emotions  that  deal  with 
love,  and  think  of  the  artistic  emotions. 
These  are  part  of  the  soul  and  not  of  the 
body.  There  is  so  much  frustrated  art  in 
this  world ;  so  many  who  can  do  a  little  but 
not  much,  for  lack  of  faculty ;  so  many  with 
great  ambitions  and  poor  achievements ;  so 
many  who  dream  more  than  they  can  realize. 
Let  them  still  have  courage  and  dream  on ; 
let  them  dream  of  the  Beauty  that  they  can- 
not reproduce,  of  the  Music  and  the  Painting 
and  the  Sculpture  that  only  gleam  to  them  in 
visions,  which  their  hands  are  unable  to  fab- 
ricate. The  power  to  achieve  will  be  made 
from  the  aspiration.  Practise  whatever  power 
53 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


you  have ;  do  not  be  ashamed  of  it  because  it 
is  small ;  cultivate  it,  water  it,  let  the  sun 
shine  on  it :  and,  in  the  grander  world  beyond, 
that  seed  of  art  will  flower  into  genius,  and 
none  of  the  efforts  will  be  wasted. 

"  And  not  only  the  emotions,  but  the  intel- 
ligence grows  there,  far  more  swiftly  than  it 
does  here.  The  man  who  is  eager  for  knowl- 
edge but  cramped  in  the  narrow  conditions  of 
his  daily  life,  shall  not  he  also  have  his  har- 
vest on  the  other  side  of  death  ?  Only  do  not 
let  him  lose  his  desire  for  knowledge.  Let 
him,  if  only  for  a  few  minutes  a  day,  read 
some  great  book,  or  study  some  great 
thought.  .  .  .  That  life  only  is  fit  to  grow 
in  the  heavenly  places  which  is  a  life  of 
sharing,  of  giving,  of  everything  that  one 
has  gathered.  And  there  is  this  joyous  thing 
about  all  the  real  goods  of  life :  the  goods 
of  intelligence,  of  emotion,  of  art,  of  love  — 
all  the  things  which  are  really  worth  the 
having  —  they  do  not  waste  in  the  giving; 
54 


The  OutUok  Beautiful. 


they  grow  the  more,  the  more  we  give. 
These  physical  things  get  smaller  as  we  take 
away  from  them,  leaving  so  much  less  for 
future  use;  and  so,  when  it  is  a  question 
of  sharing  the  physical  things  men  calculate 
and  say :  '  I  have  only  enough  for  myself, 
for  my  wife,  for  my  child.  How  can  I  give 
any  away  ? '  All  that  is  matter  is  consumed 
in  the  using;  but  that  is  not  true  of  the 
higher  things,  the  things  of  the  intelligence, 
of  the  heart,  and  of  the  spirit.  If  I  know 
something,  I  do  not  lose  it  when  I  teach 
it.  Nay!  it  becomes  more  truly  mine  be- 
cause I  have  shared  it  with  one  more  igno- 
rant than  myself;  so  that  you  have  two 
people  enriched  by  knowledge,  by  the  shar- 
ing of  a  store  that  increases,  instead  of  dimin- 
ishing, as  it  is  shared.  And  so  with  all 
that  is  worth  having.  You  need  not  fear 
to  lessen  your  own  possessions  by  throwing 
them  broadcast  to  your  hungry  fellow-men. 
Give  your  knowledge,  your  strength,  your 
55 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


love ;  empty  yourself  utterly,  and  when  for 
a  moment  you  think  you  are  empty,  then, 
from  the  inexhaustible  fount  of  love,  and 
beauty,  and  power  more  flows  down  to  fill 
the  empty  vessel,  making  it  fuller,  and  not 
emptier  than  it  was  before. 

"  There  is  the  secret  of  useful  life ;  there 
the  inspiration  to  noble  living  —  nothing  that 
I  can  win  that  is  worth  having,  which  does 
not  grow  as  I  share  it  with  my  fellows. 
And  those  who  have  thus  learned,  those 
who  see  the  physical  and  compare  it,  worth- 
less as  it  is,  with  the  emotional,  the  intellec- 
tual, the  spiritual,  they,  and  they  alone,  are 
wise,  and  know  how  to  live;  and  as  they 
live,  their  lives  are  a  benediction ;  and  when 
they  die,  their  lives  are  a  continual  progress ; 
and  when  they  return,  they  bring  the  fruits 
of  the  progress  to  share  them  also  with  their 
fellow-men.  And  so  they  learn  to  be  the 
Servants,  the  Guides,  and  the  Saviours  of  the 
world." 

56 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


The  delusion  of  Death  shall  pass.  It  is 
passing  now.  Before  the  Twenty-first  cen- 
tury it  will  have  vanished  before  the  high 
illumination  of  Science  and  of  a  diviner  Faith. 
"Truly,"  said  Bishop  Jaegar,  in  a  sermon 
preached  in  the  opening  days  of  1905,  — 
"  truly  scientific  research  is  dreaming  very  far 
out  into  the  realm  where  Christ  went  long 
before  and  gave  back  the  thrilling  word : 
'He  that  hath  the  Son  hath  life,  and  he 
that  hath  not  the  Son  of  God  hath  not 
life.' 

"  I  call  men  and  women,  therefore,  to  hero- 
ism for  the  soul's  life.  *  In  your  patience  win 
your  souls'  —  stand  firm  for  faith  and  hope 
and  love. 

"  We  must  give  the  soul  breath  toward  God 
if  we  would  win  the  true  life  for  the  world 
and  for  ourselves,"  he  continued.  "  Standing 
fast  in  the  living  truth  by  fortitude,  we  shall 
develop  the  spiritual  life  and  win  our  right 
to  be  as  Christ's  disciples." 
57 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


The  Gospels  assure  us  that  "the  pure  in 
heart  shall  see  God."  The  pure  in  heart 
do  see  God  in  the  spiritual  sense  of  sight 
which  is  knowledge  —  and  see  and  know 
Him  in  exact  proportion  to  the  degree  in 
which  they  have  achieved  purity  of  heart. 
The  new  revelations  made  by  Theosophy  of 
the  very  nature  of  the  universe;  of  the  vast 
pilgrimage  of  the  soul  on  its  way  toward 
the  ultimate  perfection  of  the  divine  life ;  the 
illumination  thrown  on  the  relations  of  the 
spirit  and  the  series  of  bodies  which  it  in- 
habits during  this  long  and  varied  journey,  — 
all  these  extend  the  horizon  of  knowledge; 
enable  man  to  enter  with  more  intelligent 
faith  into  the  mysteries  of  being.  Out  of 
that  which  is  true  (rejecting  that  which  is 
false)  in  Theosophy ;  out  of  all  that  is  true 
(rejecting  that  which  is  false)  in  psychic 
investigation,  will  arise  new  deductions  of 
truth  to  be  incorporated  into  the  teachings 
of  the  Church.  A  reasonable  theory  of  the 
58 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


universe  and  of  man's  place  in  it  is  a  legiti- 
mate part  of  religious  faith.  Theosophy, 
in  its  truest  interpretation,  offers  this  theory, 
which  is  one  that  reconciles  and  harmonizes 
all  the  teachings  of  the  Christian  Church. 
Theosophy  in  itself  is  not  a  religion,  but 
a  science ;  and  science  is  the  handmaid  of 
religion. 

The  curious  failure  to  realize  the  truth 
regarding  the  spiritual  body  —  that  body  of 
which  Saint  Paul  definitely  affirms,  "There 
is  a  natural  body  and  there  is  a  spiritual 
body"  —  is  at  the  basis  of  all  the  failure  to 
understand  the  nature  of  death  and  the  un- 
broken continuity  of  life.  Saint  Paul  even 
calls  this  spiritual  body  the  substantial 
body,  —  the  body  that  is  more  real  than  is 
the  physical,  which  is  not  real  at  all  in  any 
permanent  sense,  but  is  constantly  chang- 
ing. The  truth  is  simply  this:  We  are  all 
spiritual  beings,  now  and  here,  the  soul 
embodied  in  a  spiritual  form  (or  body). 
59 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


This  spiritual  (or  ethereal)  body  is  clothed 
upon,  temporarily  and  in  a  perpetually 
changing  way,  with  a  physical  covering,  or 
case,  to  enable  the  spiritual  being  to  come 
in  touch  with  the  physical  world  by  means 
of  the  physical  body.  It  is  the  connecting 
link,  so  to  speak,  and  that  event  we  call 
death  is  merely  the  escape,  the  slipping  out 
from  the  physical  case.  But  as  for  "the 
eye  which  has  seen  such  wonders,  the  ear 
which  has  heard  such  harmonies,"  why,  it 
is  the  eye  and  the  ear  of  the  ethereal  (or 
spiritual)  body  which  really  sees  and  hears,  — 
through  the  physical  eye-and-ear  mechanism 
while  here  in  the  physical  world,  but  much 
as  one  sees  through  an  opera-glass,  or  a 
telescope,  or  hears  through  a  trumpet,  or  an 
audiphone,  —  but  laying  down  these  mechan- 
isms which  enlarge  and  intensify  the  vision 
and  the  hearing,  does  not,  yet,  deprive  one 
of  sight  and  hearing;  so,  laying  down  the 
physical  eye  and  ear  does  not  mean  then 
60 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


the  deprivation  of  sight  or  hearing  for  the 
spiritual  being.  As  a  matter  of  actual  fact, 
the  physical  body  limits  and  restricts  and  in 
a  degree  imprisons  the  spiritual  being  so 
that,  when  released  by  that  process  we 
call  death,  the  faculties  are  keener  and  more 
vivid.  One  is  in  the  "  life  more  abundant." 
It  is  the  enlargement  of  consciousness. 

As  for  death  —  in  the  sense  in  which  the 
term  is  ordinarily  used  —  there  is  no  death. 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  death  possible. 
No  consciousness  can  be  extinguished.  No 
energy  can  be  annulled.  All  force  is  evolu- 
tionary,—  appearing  in  a  succession  of  new 
forms,  but  itself  is  unquenchable. 

Rev.  Dr.  Minot  Savage  notes  that  death 
is  as  natural  as  birth.  The  latter  introduces 
us  into  this  life  as  one  of  the  long  series 
—  before  and  after;  the  former  introduces 
us  into  the  next  higher  stage  of  evolution. 
In  the  transition  to  the  "life  more  abun- 
dant "  there  is  nothing  to  fear.  Nor  is  the 
61 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


life  to  come  merely  a  question  of  hope ;  it  is 
a  matter  of  absolute  knowledge,  of  unques- 
tionable reality.  "The  life  to  come"  and 
"the  life  that  now  is"  are  one,  with  no 
more  line  of  separation  than  is  between 
infancy  and  childhood  or  between  childhood 
and  manhood.  Life  is  one  and  eternal,  and 
is  simply  evolutionary  immortality. 

"Death  is  the  concentration,  or  bringing 
to  a  focus,  of  all  the  forces  of  the  first  life, 
The  Ethereal  that  they  mav  thence  be  re-ex- 
World>  panded  and  spread  out  into  the 
second,"  said  Phillips  Brooks  at  one  time ; 
and  he  added:  "There  is  no  such  thing  as 
death  touching  the  real  life  of  man,  and  the 
imperishable  will  never  die."  The  leading 
characteristic  of  the  Twentieth  century  is 
the  re-discovery  of  the  essential  truths  of 
Christianity.  The  world  is  coming  to  a  true 
appreciation  of  the  cause  for  which  the  Son 
of  God  came  into  this  world.  He  came  "  to 
bring  life  and  immortality  to  light,"  and 
62 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


humanity  is  only  now  beginning  to  realize 
the  profound  significance  of  these  words. 
Immortality  includes  the  spiritual  world  of 
two  thousand  years  ago  and  that  of  to-day, 
and  implies  its  close  relation  with  the  physi- 
cal world  of  the  present  hour  as  completely 
as  its  close  relation  with  the  physical  world 
when  Jesus  walked  among  men  on  earth. 
Jesus  taught  the  infinite  potency  of  prayer. 
"  Ask,  and  ye  shall  receive,"  "  If  a  man 
ask  anything  in  my  name  I  will  hear  him," 
"Whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  in  prayer,  believ- 
ing, ye  shall  receive."  To  ask  and  to  receive 
implies  that  the  request,  the  petition,  is  heard. 
To  imply  that  the  petition  is  heard  presup- 
poses and  establishes  the  spiritual  relation  be- 
tween man  and  God.  It  establishes  the  truth 
of  telepathic  communication,  —  of  spirit  to 
spirit  flashing  its  message.  It  presupposes 
the  infinite  spiritual  universe  in  reciprocal 
relations  with  the  physical  universe.  When 
the  important  truth  that  the  spiritual  world 
63 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


acts  systematically  upon  the  physical  world 
is  clearly  recognized,  this  recognition  marks 
a  crisis  of  the  most  arresting  significance 
in  human  life.  In  his  great  work  entitled 
"Human  Personality  and  its  Survival  of 
Bodily  Death,"  Frederic  W.  H.  Myers  says 
of  the  conditions  beyond :  "  Firstly,  and 
chiefly,  I  at  least  see  ground  to  believe  that 
their  state  is  one  of  endless  evolution  in 
wisdom  and  in  love.  Their  loves  of  earth 
persist ;  and  most  of  all  those  highest  loves 
which  seek  their  outlet  in  adoration  and 
work.  .  .  .  Yet  from  their  step  of  vantage- 
ground  in  the  universe,  at  least,  they  see 
that  it  is  good.  I  do  not  mean  that  they 
know  either  of  an  end  or  of  an  explanation 
of  evil.  Yet  evil  to  them  seems  less  a  ter- 
rible than  a  slavish  thing.  It  is  embodied 
in  no  mighty  potentate ;  rather  it  forms  an 
isolating  madness  from  which  higher  spirits 
strive  to  free  the  distorted  soul.  There 
needs  no  chastisement  of  fire ;  self-knowledge 
64 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


is  man's  punishment  and  his  reward;  self- 
knowledge  and  the  nearness  or  the  aloofness 
of  companion  souls.  For  in  that  world  love 
is  actually  self-preservation;  the  Communion 
of  Saints  not  only  adorns  but  constitutes 
the  Life  Everlasting.  Nay,  from  the  law  of 
telepathy  it  follows  that  that  communion  is 
valid  for  us  here  and  now.  Even  now  the 
love  of  souls  departed  makes  answer  to  our 
invocations;  even  now  our  loving  memory 
—  love  is  itself  a  prayer  —  supports  and 
strengthens  those  delivered  spirits  upon  their 
upward  way.  No  wonder;  since  we  are  to 
them  but  as  fellow-travellers  shrouded  in  a 
mist ;  '  Neither  death  nor  life,  nor  height  nor 
depth,  nor  any  other  creature'  can  bar  us 
from  the  hearth-fire  of  the  universe,  or  hide 
for  more  than  a  moment  the  inconceivable 
oneness  of  souls. " 

As  man  is  by  his  very  nature  an  inhabitant, 
now  and  here,  of  both  the  physical  and  the 
ethereal  worlds,  there  are  hours  and  seasons 
6  65 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


when  he  realizes  this  consciousness  of  living 
in  a  finer  atmosphere. 

That  peculiar  thrill  of  a  very  ecstasy  of 
happiness  that  is  not  infrequently  experi- 
enced by  every  one  is  caused  by  the  fact 
that,  at  that  moment,  the  entire  being  is 
in  responsive  vibration  with  the  heavenly 
world.  For  the  moment  the  conditions  are 
such  that  there  is  perfect  harmony  between 
the  forces  on  the  Unseen  side  and  on  this, 
and  the  result  is  that  thrill  of  indescribable 
exaltation  and  joy.  If  this  can  be  the  ex- 
perience of  rare  and  infrequent  moments, 
may  it  not  come  to  be  the  constant  and  the 
universal  experience  of  every  day  and  every 
hour?  The  question  arrests  attention.  It 
involves  a  problem  that  fascinates  the  im- 
agination. It  is  really  only  another  form  of 
asking,  "  What  shall  we  do  to  be  saved  ? " 
For  if  we  are  to  be  saved,  we  want  to  be 
saved  now,  saved  all  the  time,  redeemed  this 
very  hour  and  caught  up  to  all  glory  and 
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greatness  and  grandeur  of  life,  and  not  rele- 
gate all  that  makes  life  worth  living  to 
some  vague,  distant,  intangible  future.  The 
practical  question  then  formulates  itself: 
Can  one  so  live  as  to  dwell  in  perpetual 
and  unbroken  harmony,  peace  and  joy? 

The  one  great  objection  that  will  be  in- 
stantly offered  is  that  one's  happiness  de- 
pends so  very  largely  on  events  which  he 
cannot  control  and  on  the  conduct  and  atti- 
tude of  other  people.  "No  man  liveth  to 
himself."  No  man  can  possibly  foresee,  or 
determine,  the  circumstances  and  events  that 
surround  and  befall  him.  The  bank  in  whicli 
all  his  money  is  placed  suddenly  fails ;  death 
claims  some  one  of  his  nearest  and  dearest ; 
illness,  or  accident,  occurs  to  him  and  leaves 
him  helpless,  or  in  pain;  business  troubles 
arise;  friendships  are  alienated;  plans  are 
thwarted,  —  a  thousand  ills  and  mischances 
and  apparent  wrongs,  disasters,  calamities,  or 
failures  stand  ready  to  invade  any  hour  of 
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The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


his  life.  This  is  what  huraau  life  —  life  on 
earth  —  is;  this  is  the  uncertain  and  unfore- 
seen texture  of  which  it  is  made;  these  are 
its  constant  possibilities  and  liabilities;  and 
who  is  there  whose  life  does  not  experience 
some  one  of  these  or  of  various  other  forms  of 
trial?  Can  one,  then,  so  hold  and  determine 
the  conditions  as  to  be  able  all  the  time  to 
enter  into  this  heavenly  joy ;  to  be  responsive 
to  the  vibrations  of  the  heavenly  world  ? 

It  is  always  possible  to  dwell  in  the 
miracle  region,  —  on  the  plane  where  the 
higher  forces  work  and  weave  their  figures 
and  enchant  life  to  nobler  purposes  and 
swift  fulfilments. 

"  Born  and  nourished  in  miracles, 
His  feet  were  shod  with  golden  bells, 
Or  where  he  stepped  the  soil  did  peal 
As  if  the  dust  were  glass  and  steel." 

The  entire  panorama  of  life  is  the  logical 
outcome,  the  inevitable  result,  of  that  which 
has  been  created  in  thought 
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"  Whate'er  our  state,  we  must  have  made  it  first." 
Still,  this  truth  holds  its  vital  encourage- 
ment rather  than  the  reverse.  If  we  have 
made  a  given  state,  we  can  unmake  it  and 
make  another.  The  one  controlling  truth 
of  existence  is  concentrated  in  Emerson's 
expression,  "  The  flowing  conditions  of  life." 
The  conditions  are  not  fixed,  crystallized,  im- 
movable, and  unchangeable.  They  are  fluid, 
not  solid.  They  are  more  than  plastic, — 
they  flow.  They  are  ready  to  run  into  any 
mould,  and  the  mould  is  created  by  thought. 
This  intense  force  has  created  one  form  of 
mould,  and  "the  flowing  events"  have  run 
into  it,  and  have  thus  become  certain  given 
conditions  of  life.  Those  conditions  will 
remain  as  long  as  the  thought-forces  hold 
the  mould  in  shape,  but  as  soon  as  these 
forces  dissolve  that  mould,  and  create  another, 
conditions  change.  And  thus  one's  life  is 
really  in  his  own  power  if  he  has  sufficiently 
developed  his  higher  self  to  have  achieved 
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The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


the  power  of  thought-creation.  But  this  is 
something  very  remote  from  the  mere  wish 
and  word.  The  wish,  the  desire,  is  feeble 
and  inarticulate  compared  to  the  thought. 
For  thought,  in  its  ideal  perfection,  is  the 
divine  power,  and  man  only  approaches  it 
in  proportion  as  he  increasingly  achieves  his 
higher  possibilities.  There  are  multitudes 
of  people  who  go  through  life  without  ever 
having  compassed  the  power  of  real  thought 
at  all.  What  they  take  for  granted  is 
thought  is  really  mere  vague  mental  out- 
reaching,  in  wish  that  never  deepens  and 
crystallizes  into  will,  —  in  desire  that  never 
realizes  itself  in  determination.  Thought  is 
something  as  different  from  this  as  the  light- 
ning's flash  is  different  from  the  dim  burning 
of  a  tallow  candle.  Dr.  Mclvor-Tyndall,  in  a 
recent  scientific  paper  on  "Electric  Waves 
of  the  Human  Brain,"  refers  to  the  theory 
of  Dr.  Tommasiua  of  Geneva,  who  has  arrived 
at  the  conviction  that  the  human  body  can 
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itself  serve  as  a  receiving  station  in  wireless 
telegraphy.  He  finds  that  as  a  receiver  the 
body  is  almost  as  perfect  as  a  wire  or  metallic 
rod.  It  is  less  of  a  conductor  than  metal, 
but  as  an  offset  presents  a  wider  surface, 
which  practice  has  demonstrated  to  be  very 
advantageous  for  the  reception  of  waves  in 
wireless  telegraphy.  We  have  made  use  of 
our  bodies  both  as  receiving  and  transmitting 
stations,  first  insulating  ourselves  properly 
from  the  ground.  We  have  thus  been  able 
to  make  communications  at  appreciable  dis- 
tances by  sending  and  receiving  the  waves 
through  the  body,  he  concludes.  The  nervous 
system  serves  as  a  battery. 

Now  in  regard  to  that  direction  of  thought- 
force  known  as  telepathy,  there  is  a  clear 
scientific  explanation  of  just  what  takes 
place.  "  It  is  evident,"  he  says,  "  that  trans- 
missions from  brain  to  brain  can  be  produced 
at  a  distance,  just  as  in  wireless  telegraphy. 
One  brain  sets  the  nervous  waves  in  action, 
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Tlie  Outlook  Beautiful. 


and  the  other  receives   the  waves  as  in  the 
ordinary  wireless  receiver." 

In  a  word,  then,  Thought  is  a  force  of  the 
most  intense  quality.  It  is,  at  once,  the 
most  subtile  and  the  most  intense  potency 
in  the  universe.  In  its  perfection  it  is  the 
divine  power  that  instantaneously  creates  all 
things.  In  the  lesser  grasp  that  man  has 
on  it,  in  the  lesser  power  in  which  he  is 
able  to  achieve  and  to  wield  it,  the  creative 
results  are  proportionately  less.  Man  may 
use  this  power  both  in  the  establishment  of 
certain  conditions  of  his  own  life  and  in 
communicating  with  others  by  the  process 
known  as  telepathy.  Telepathy  will  soon 
become  as  recognized  a  method  as  telegraphy. 
It  will  be  seen  that  it  has  as  scientific  a 
basis,  and  its  laws  will  be  discovered  and 
formulated.  At  present  these  laws  are  by 
no  means  clearly  discerned.  One  who  studies 
his  own  experimental  experience  in  telep- 
athy will  find  that  messages  come  unsought 
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The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


and  unconsciously;  that  they  do  not  come 
when  consciously  sought;  and  again,  that 
they  do  come  when  consciously  sought ;  and 
out  of  all  those  three  varied  experiences 
he  will  be  unable  to  discover  why  his  con- 
scious effort  is  sometimes  a  success  and  some- 
times a  failure;  and  why,  at  times,  there 
occurs  an  unconscious  and  unsought  success. 
But  at  present  this  is  the  status :  one  tries 
to  send  a  telepathic  message  and  he  does 
not  succeed ;  one  tries,  and  he  does  succeed  ; 
one  does  not  try  at  all,  nor  have  any  con- 
sciousness of  it,  but  the  message  is  sent  and 
is  received  by  the  person  to  whom  it  is  — 
however  unconsciously  —  directed.  These 
phenomena  certainly  enchain  the  attention 
and  invite  research. 

The  power  of  thought  to  dissolve  existing 
states;  to  efface  the  present  mould  and 
create  a  new  one  for  "  the  flowing  conditions 
of  life"  to  enter,  is  one  that  can  only  be 
achieved  by  entering  more  and  more  into 
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The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


conscious  and  intelligent  participation  of  the 
divine  life.  Spirit  is  force,  and  to  the  degree 
in  which  one  lives  in  the  spirit  shall  he 
achieve  this  power  and  be  enabled  to  exer- 
cise it.  "There  is  a  power  in  To-day  to 
recreate  the  beautiful  Yesterday,"  says  Emer- 
son. All  that  is  noble  and  beautiful  has 
immortality,  and  though  it  seems  to  vanish, 
it  can  be  recalled  and  wrought  into  actual 
experience  again. 

"  '  Pass  in,  pass  in,'  the  angels  say, 

'  In  to  the  upper  doors, 

Nor  count  compartments  of  the  floors, 
But  mount  to  Paradise, 
By  stairways  of  surprise.'  " 

Robert  Browning  perfectly  characterizes 
that  beautiful  condition  we  call  "  heaven " 
when  he  defines  it  as  the  "  Heaven  of  Spirit," 
and  a  line  of  one  of  his  poems  runs :  — 

"  Thou  art  shut  out  of  the  Heaven  of  Spirit,"  — 

a  line  full  of  profound  suggestion.  For  the 
only  possible  heaven  is  that  of  spirit, — not 

74 


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a  location,  but  a  spiritual  condition,  and  be- 
ing a  condition  of  spirit,  it  may  be  entered 
into  now  and  here.  If  one  is  not,  at  the 
present  hour,  living  in  heaven,  it  is,  mani- 
festly, his  own  fault.  Perhaps  we  must 
admit  that  most  of  us  are  not  so  living ; 
that  we  awaken  in  the  morning  and  close 
our  eyes  to  sleep  at  night  under  a  burden  of 
mingled  pain,  sadness,  discord ;  conscious, 
it  may  be,  of  being  misinterpreted  and  mis- 
understood ;  and  on  our  own  part,  perhaps 
misinterpreting  and  misunderstanding  others 
until  all  the  fine  gold  of  life  is  fretted  away, 
and  the  time  —  all  the  days  and  months  and 
years  that  should  be  beautiful,  joyous,  filled 
with  noble  achievement  and  generous  out- 
going; with  sympathetic  joy  in  all  the  good 
of  others  —  come  to  be,  instead,  entangled 
with  hopelessness  and  thus  paralyzed  into 
inactivity.  Such  a  condition  as  this  may 
come  without  conscious  or  intentional  fault 
of  one's  own;  it  may  arise  out  of  cir- 
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The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


cumstances,  events,  occurrences  over  whose 
course  one  holds  no  direct  control.  One 
suddenly  finds  himself  entangled  in  this 
network  of  circumstances  that  seem  adverse 
on  every  side;  that  fairly  paralyze  his  en- 
ergies. And  where  is  the  remedy?  What 
can  he  do  ?  He  is  "  shut  out  of  the 
Heaven  of  Spirit."  What  can  he  do  but 
realize  the  everlasting  truth  in  the  counsel 
of  Jesus,  "Knock,  and  it  shall  be  opened 
unto  you."  The  door  that  closed  shall 
open.  The  peace  and  radiance  that  seemed 
lost  shall  be  regained.  The  "Heaven  of 
Spirit"  is  always  ready;  one  may  regain  it 
through  prayer  and  the  uplift  of  the  heart 
to  God. 

"  Even  here,"  says  Phillips  Brooks,  "  every 
man  may  claim  his  own  life,  not  for  himself, 
but  for  his  Lord."  Even  here  and  now  one 
may  live  as  unto  the  Lord,  —  live  with  tender- 
ness and  consideration  and  care  for  others ; 
live  with  dignity  and  fortitude  through  his 
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own    trials    and    keep    in    spirit-touch   with 
divine  and  beautiful  things. 

It  is  the  Life  Radiant  that  may  be  lived. 
No  one  of  us  need  be  shut  out  of  the  Heaven 
of  Spirit.  We  may  live  in  it  —  now  and 
here  —  by  living  in  the  higher  and  nobler 
qualities. 

"  For  such  a  social  life  as  that  we  have  a 
right  to  pray,"  says  Bishop  Brooks.  "  But  we 
may  do  more  than  pray  for  it.  We  may 
begin  it  in  ourselves.  Already  we  may  give 
ourselves  to  Christ.  We  may  own  that  we 
are  His.  We  may  see  in  all  our  bodily  life  — 
in  the  strength  and  glory  of  our  youth  if 
we  are  young  and  strong,  in  the  weariness 
and  depression  of  our  age  or  feebleness  if 
we  are  old  and  feeble  —  the  marks  of  His 
ownership,  the  signs  that  we  are  His.  .  .  . 
And  while  we  wait  we  may  make  the  world 
stronger  by  being  our  own,  and  sweeter  by 
being  our  brethren's,  and  both  because  we 
are  really  not  our  own,  but  Christ's."  For 
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this  truth  is  our  keynote  of  life,  —  that  we 
are  not  our  own,  but  Christ's.  Our  divine 
heredity  dominates  us.  We  are  co-workers 
with  God  in  the  divine  universe.  The  mo- 
ment we  become  spiritually  enlightened  the 
entire  standpoint  of  life  is  changed.  Life 
is  then  focussed  from  a  permanent  point  of 
infinite  significance  and  beauty.  On  this 
basis  it  builds  itself  up  on  a  new  pattern. 
Following  a  divine  ideal,  every  thought  and 
purpose  falls  into  a  beautiful  order  of  related 
cause  and  effect,  of  precedent  and  sequence, 
fitting  with  the  perfection  of  a  mosaic  each 
with  the  other.  Now  it  is  possible  to  estab- 
lish life  on  this  basis  even  to  the  degree 
that  every  day's  events  shall  fall  into  this 
harmonious  and  mutually  completing  order. 
For  instance,  one  is  in  a  city  and  desires  to 
meet  a  friend  whose  address,  at  the  moment, 
he  does  not  know,  and  whose  residence  in 
the  place  has  not  been  of  sufficient  duration 
for  his  name  to  have  been  included  in  the 
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TJie  Outlook  Beautiful. 


directory.  Yet  if  his  life  has  been  focussed 
in  this  divine  order,  the  meeting  will  arrange 
itself.  That  divinely  harmonious  power  con- 
trols even  as  it  includes  all  minor  events, 
and  the  two  persons  will  meet  in  the  street, 
or  in  some  house,  or  in  the  street-car,  —  in 
some  perfectly  natural  and  apparently  acci- 
dental manner,  but  which  is  simply  a  part 
of  this  beautiful  mosaic-like  completeness  of 
daily  experience.  "If  we  are  related,  we 
shall  meet,"  says  Emerson,  and  again  we 
find  him  saying :  "  A  healthy  soul  stands 
united  with  the  Just  and  the  True,  as  the 
magnet  arranges  itself  with  the  pole,  so  that 
he  stands  to  all  beholders  like  a  transparent 
object  betwixt  them  and  the  sun,  and  whoso 
journeys  towards  the  sun  journeys  towards 
that  person.  He  is  thus  the  medium  of  the 
highest  influence  to  all  who  are  not  on  the 
same  level."  This  higher  truth  suggested  by 
Emerson,  that  one  may  thus  become  "the 
medium  of  the  highest  influence,"  is  also 
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The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


included  in  the  completeness  of  the  divine 
ordering.  The  perfection  of  each  element,  of 
each  factor,  is  presupposed  in  the  complete- 
ness of  the  entire  structural  character  of  the 
moral  universe.  The  moment  one  achieves 
the  ideal  quality  which  is  the  condition  of 
entering  as  a  factor  into  this  divine  order, 
that  moment  he  is  admitted  to  the  privileges 
of  that  order.  He  shares  in  this  higher  de- 
gree of  energy  as  the  sailing-ship  that  encoun- 
ters a  wind  blowing  in  the  direction  toward 
which  its  sails  are  set  comes  into  partici- 
pation with  this  more  intense  energy  which 
moves  it  swiftly  on. 

Some  one  has  said,  "  Things  are  always 
right  if  we  are  right."  It  is  a  crude  ex- 
pression of  a  marvellous  truth.  The  moral 
universe  is  a  vast  and  ideally  harmonious 
order  in  which  every  element  is  mutually 
adjusted  to  the  perfect  working  of  the  whole. 
Man  is  designed  by  God  as  a  factor  in  this 
creation.  It  is  an  order  to  which  he  is  ad- 
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mitted  as  a  participant  only  by  conditions. 
Those  conditions  are  inherent  in  the  very 
nature  of  this  divine  order  and  are  therefore 
unalterable.  It  remains  for  man  to  so  purify 
and  exalt  his  own  quality  of  life  as  to  come 
into  harmony  with  this  moral  universe.  For 
he  is  a  twofold  being.  He  is  born  into 
the  physical  world,  and  with  this  physical 
order  are  all  his  rudimentary  relations.  But 
he  is,  primarily,  a  spiritual  being  who,  for  a 
temporary  period,  has  assumed  these  relations 
with  the  physical  universe,  —  relations  that 
form  his  instrument,  so  to  speak,  for  the 
achievement  of  his  spiritual  life.  But  it  is 
the  latter  which  is  his  real,  his  normal  life. 
For  man  is,  literally,  the  child  of  God,  and 
it  is  only  in  proportion  as  he  recognizes  his 
divine  nature  and  makes  his  life  an  expres- 
sion of  his  divinity,  that  he  truly  lives  at  all. 
Increasingly,  as  he  recognizes  and  expresses 
his  divine  nature,  does  he  become  an  inhab- 
itant of  the  moral  universe  and  enter  into 
6  81 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


its  privileges.  This  moral  universe  is  the 
Heaven  of  Spirit.  Its  central  luminary  is 
God,  the  Father  of  all.  "To  know  Him 
everywhere  is  the  true  Wisdom  ;  to  love 
Him  everywhere  is  the  true  Desire ;  to  serve 
Him  everywhere  is  the  true  Action." 

A  wonderful  and  vital  expression  of  this 
achievement  of  the  true  and  normal  life  of 
man  is  given  by  Frederic  W.  H.  Myers  in 
his  great  poem,  "Saint  Paul,"  in  which  the 
apostle  is  represented  as  saying :  — 

"  So,  even  I,  athirst  for  His  inspiring, 

I,  who  have  talked  with  Him,  forget  again ; 
Yes,  many  days  with  sobs  and  with  desiring, 
Offer  to  God  a  patience  and  a  pain. 

"  Then  through  the  mid  complaint  of  my  confession, 

Then  through  the  pang  and  passion  of  my  prayer, 
Leaps  with  a  start  the  shock  of  His  possession, 
Thrills  me  and  touches,  and  the  Lord  is  there. 

"  Lo,  if  some  pen  should  write  upon  your  rafter 

Mene  and  Mene  in  the  folds  of  flame, 
Think  ye  could  any  memories  thereafter 
Wholly  retrace  the  couplet  as  it  came  ? 

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The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


"  Lo,  if  some  strange  intelligible  thunder 
Sang  to  the  earth  the  secret  of  a  star, 
Scarce  should  ye  catch,  for  terror  and  for  wonder, 
Shreds  of  the  story  that  was  pealed  so  far ! 

"  Scarcely  I  catch  the  words  of  His  revealing, 

Hardly  I  hear  Him,  dimly  understand. 
Only  the  power  that  is  within  me  pealing 
Lives  on  my  lips,  and  beckons  to  my  hand. 

"  Whoso  hath  felt  the  Spirit  of  the  Highest 

Cannot  confound,  nor  doubt  Him,  nor  deny ; 
Yea,  with  one  voice,  0  world,  though  thou  deniest, 
Stand  thou  on  that  side,  for  on  this  am  I. 

"  Rather  the  world  shall  doubt  when  her  retrieving 

Pours  in  the  rain  and  rushes  from  the  sod ; 
Eather  than  he  in  whom  the  great  conceiving 
Stirs  in  his  soul  to  quicken  into  God. 

"  Nay,  though  thou  then  shouldst  strike  him  from  his 

glory, 

Blind  and  tormented,  maddened  and  alone, 
E'en  on  the  cross  would  he  maintain  his  story, 
Yes,  and  in  Hell  would  whisper,  '  I  have  known.' " 

No  one  is  "shut  out   of  the   Heaven  of 
Spirit "  by  any  arbitrary  decree.     This  Heaven 
is  man's  true   abiding-place.     It  is  a   con- 
dition.    In  this  heaven  alone  does  he  live  in 
83 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


the  normal  expression  of  his  powers.  If  he 
shut  himself  out  of  it  because  of  his  defective 
spiritual  life,  he  is  dwelling  in  a  dungeon 
when  he  might  walk  forth  into  the  radiance 
and  beauty  of  luminous  air.  We  talk  of  the 
mortal  and  the  immortal  life  as  if  the  one 
were  the  fixed  and  unalterable  state  before 
that  change  which  we  call  death;  and  as 
if  the  other  were  the  fixed  and  unalterable 
condition  after  this  event  of  death.  This 
view  is  a  fallacy.  The  immortal  life  is  that 
"  Heaven  of  Spirit "  which  may  be  entered  at 
any  moment,  —  which  is  inevitably  entered 
at  the  moment  when  the  qualities  which  cor- 
respond with  this  environment  are  achieved. 

The    supreme    purpose    of  Jesus   was    to 
bring  life  and  immortality  to  light.     A  great 

truth   unrecognized   is   not   less  a 
The  Supreme 

Purpose  of  truth,  but  until  it  is  rescued  from 
Jesus. 

hidden    darkness    and    related    to 

men's  lives,  it  cannot  enter  into  them  as  an 

enlarging  and  ennobling  force.     Immortality 

84 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


has  a  more  profound  significance  than  the 
mere  continuation  of  existence.  "  I  am  come," 
said  Jesus,  "that  ye  might  have  life,  and 
have  it  more  abundantly ; "  and  only  in  pro- 
portion to  the  degree  in  which  man  lives  in 
truth,  in  justice,  in  generosity  and  helpfulness 
and  love,  does  he  live  in  any  real  sense  at 
all.  The  "  life  more  abundant "  is  the  life  of 
spirituality,  and  it  is  the  life  more  abundant 
which  is  the  normal  condition  of  man,  who 
is,  essentially  and  permanently,  a  spiritual 
being,  and  only  transiently  related  to  the 
physical  universe.  His  real  life,  now  and 
here,  is  the  life  of  the  spirit.  Now,  the  life 
of  the  spirit  does  not  imply  an  exclusive  de- 
votion to  ceremonial  religion.  The  illumina- 
tion and  guidance  received  at  the  altar  are 
tested  in  the  public  square.  "  What  hear  ye 
in  the  darkness,  that  speak  ye  in  the  light." 
Spiritual  life  is  power.  Spiritual  life  expresses 
itself  in  progress,  in  all  that  makes  for  the 
finer  civilization.  It  is  seen  in  the  vast  enter- 
85 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


prises  and  marvellous  inventions  that  are 
bringing  the  entire  world  into  those  closer 
inter-relations  of  modern  life.  Space  and 
Time, — those  two  conditions  which  were 
formerly  held  to  differentiate  the  two  lives 
before  and  after  the  event  called  death, — 
Space  and  Time,  belonging  to  the  finite  and 
not  to  the  infinite,  are  being  overcome  by 
those  inventions  and  appliances  which  the 
spiritual  sight  has  discerned,  as  made  pos- 
sible by  the  clearer  understanding  and  the 
more  comprehensive  grasp  of  the  laws  of  the 
universe. 

The  most  important  fact  in  the  Twentieth 
century  is  the  prevailing  and  increasing  in- 
terest in  the  higher  development  of  life. 
"Who  would  live  in  the  stone  age,  or  the 
bronze,  or  the  iron,  or  the  lacustrine  ?  Who 
does  not  prefer  the  age  of  steel,  of  gold,  of 
coal,  petroleum,  cotton,  steam,  electricity,  and 
the  spectroscope  ?  "  questions  Emerson.  "  All 
this  activity  has  added  to  the  value  of  life," 
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he  continues,  "and  to  the  scope  of  the  in- 
tellect. .  .  .  The  hero  sees  that  the  event  is 
ancillary:  it  must  follow  him.  A  given 
order  of  events  has  no  power  to  secure  to 
him  the  satisfaction  which  the  imagination 
attaches  to  it ;  the  soul  of  goodness  escapes 
from  any  set  of  circumstances,  whilst  prosper- 
ity belongs  to  a  certain  mind,  and  will  intro- 
duce that  power  and  victory  which  is  its 
natural  fruit,  into  any  order  of  events.  No 
change  of  circumstances  can  repair  a  defect 
of  character." 

To  the  thoughtful  mind  there  is  an  ever- 
recurring  problem  regarding  the  relations  be- 
tween these  circumstances  —  the  conditions 
which  we  have  learned  to  call  Karma  —  and 
the  divine  ordering  which  we  think  of  as 
being  the  will  of  God. 

Between    karma  and    the   divine  will    is 

there  a  great  gulf  fixed?     Or  is  there,   in 

the  more  complete  interpretation  of  karma,  a 

significance  that  closely  corresponds  to  what 

87 


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is  meant  by  the  will  of  God?  Is  not  the 
divine  will  manifested  in  all  cause  and 
effect? 

Always  there  has  been  this  problem  as  to 
the  relations  between  the  divine  and  the 
human  will.  If  the  divine  will  was  every- 
where and  always  manifested,  how,  then, 
did  the  effect  differ  from  fate  and  preordi- 
nation and  predestination?  And  if  it  was 
thus  invariably  manifested,  where  did  the 
freedom  of  the  will  and  the  moral  responsi- 
bility of  each  individual  begin?  Surely  the 
will  of  God  could  mean  a  compelling  force 
acting  upon  man  in  a  manner  to  render  his 
actions  merely  automatic,  for  unless  there 
were  freedom  of  choice  there  could  be  no 
moral  responsibility. 

The  mere  surface  presentation  of  karma 
as  simply  cause  and  effect  might  seem  to 
exclude  the  divine  guidance,  but  a  deeper 
insight  reveals  that  the  two  are  inseparably 
connected.  Life  is  a  question  of  choice,  and 
88 


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therefore  of  moral  responsibility;  but  the 
divine  will  as  certainly  governs  and  controls 
and  determines  all  the  relations  between 
choice  and  results,  all  that  subtile  and 
wonderful  sequence  of  cause  and  effect  that 
makes  the  very  texture  of  life.  For  divine 
counsel  is  not  divine  compulsion.  Divine 
direction  is  not  divine  domination.  The 
divine  counsel  and  direction  is  the  privilege 
of  man.  It  is  given  in  just  the  portion  in 
which  it  is  sought  —  and  recognized  and 
accepted.  It  is  the  illumination  in  which 
all  may  walk,  but  if  one  chooses  the  dark- 
ness and  rejects  the  light,  for  him  the  light 
does  not  shine.  Accepting  the  illumination, 
recognizing  the  guidance,  the  cause  and 
effect  or  karma  woven  with  every  day  be- 
comes of  a  constantly  higher  and  diviner 
order,  and  increasingly,  too,  does  one  choose 
intelligently  and  nobly,  and  thus  from  a  chain 
of  higher  causes  produce  the  chain  of  con- 
tinually higher  and  finer  effects.  Theosophy 
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and  religion  meet  on  this  plane,  —  theosophy 
being  simply  the  explanation  in  detail  of  the 
religious  truth  presented  in  essence.  God 
works  through  agencies  and  means  both  with 
those  in  the  physical  and  with  those  in  the 
ethereal  worlds.  "  In  the  invisible  worlds 
there  exist  many  kinds  of  Intelligences  which 
come  into  relationship  with  man,  a  veritable 
Jacob's  ladder  on  which  the  angels  of  God 
ascend  and  descend,  and  above  which  stands 
the  Lord  Himself.  Some  of  these  Intelli- 
gences are  mighty  spiritual  powers,  others 
are  exceedingly  limited  beings.  All  the 
world  is  filled  with  invisible  beings,  invisible 
to  fleshly  eyes.  The  invisible  worlds  inter- 
penetrate the  visible  and  crowds  of  intelligent 
beings  throng  round  us  on  every  side.  .  .  . 
And  to  crown  all,  there  is  the  ever-present 
ever-conscious  life  of  God  Himself,  potent 
and  responsive  at  every  point  of  His  realm, 
of  Him  without  whose  knowledge  not  a 
sparrow  falleth  to  the  ground,  —  the  all- 
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sustaining  Life  and  Love  in  which  we  live 
and  move." 

Of  the  great  law  of  progress  Alexander 
Fullerton  well  says  :  — 

"  If  we  compare  infant  humanity  with  human- 
ity at  this  era,  we  cannot  doubt  the  forward 
movement.  But  the  process,  the  healthful  pro- 
cess, will  go  on.  As  the  world  is  better  to-day 
than  it  was  millions  of  years  ago,  so  will  it  be 
incomparably  better  millions  of  years  hence  than 
now.  All  the  sadness  and  sorrow  and  pain  and 
privation  will  show  their  results  in  evolution. 
The  evil  passes,  the  good  remains.  Not  for 
nothing  are  we  born  and  reborn  into  earthly 
life,  not  for  nothing  are  its  lessons  forced  into 
our  souls.  And  when  the  process  is  once  appre- 
hended, when  we  know  the  law  and  have  brought 
ourselves  into  harmony  with  it,  that  process  is 
immeasurably  more  rapid.  The  utmost  attain- 
ments of  humanity  come  into  sight  when  the  law 
by  which  they  are  reached  is  seized. 

"A  cheering  view  of  the  future  is  important, 
but  it  is  not  so  vital  as  a  stimulating  motive  to 
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the  present.  !N"ow  it  is  the  pre-eminent  merit  of 
Theosophy  that  it  puts  into  every  man's  hand 
the  determinant  of  his  own  destiny.  It  is  abso- 
lutely certain  that  he  is  repeatedly  to  return  to 
earth,  and  it  is  just  as  certain  that  his  return 
will  have  the  quality  he  himself  imparts  to  it. 
What  he  is  and  desires  and  does  will  determine 
these  future  incarnations.  Nothing  that  he  can 
do  will  nullify  Reincarnation  and  Karma,  but 
everything  that  he  does  will  decide  how  they 
shall  operate.  Thus  the  solemn  responsibility 
for  the  happiness  and  prosperity  of  his  next 
earth-life  is  entrusted  to  him  now,  and  he  may 
know  that  in  each  of  his  enterprises  and  thoughts 
and  deeds  he  is  framing  the  mould  for  another 
incarnation.  It  is  certainly  a  momentous  fact 
that  the  crop  shall  be  as  the  seed,  but  it  is  an 
inspiring  fact  that  the  seed  must  be  such  as  he 
himself  shall  select  and  be  sown  even  as  he  shall 
win." 

The  absolute  joy  and  exhilaration  of  lifting 

up  the   heart  to   God    and    recognizing  and 

following  the  divine  guidance  transcends  all 

expression ;   and  the   harmony  thus  created 

92 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


becomes   an   environment   of    untold   beauty 
and  blessedness. 

The  minor  events  in  daily  experience  are  by 
no  means  invariably  the  least  significant : 

"  There  is  no  gree.t  and  no  small 
To  the  Soul  that  maketh  all. 
And  where  it  corneth  all  things  are, 
And  it  cometh  everywhere." 

George  Eliot  somewhere  speaks  of  the  need 
we  all  have  "to  be  judged  in  the  wholeness 
of  our  conduct,"  and  in  this  expression  is 
suggested  one  of  the  great  truths  —  as  well 
as  the  great  tests  —  of  human  life.  Character 
is  a  composite  thing,  continually  changing, 
always  growing  finer  and  more  exalted,  or 
else  deteriorating,  but  never  fixed  and  unal- 
terable. It  is,  too,  inevitably  dependent  on 
the  "  multiple  personality,"  which,  to  a  greater 
or  lesser  degree,  dominates  every  individual. 
Whether  this  "  multiple  personality "  is  so 
differentiated  as  to  become  phenomenal,  —  as 
in  the  cases  that  have  enlisted  the  close  study 
93 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


of  Dr.  Pierre  Janet,  the  great  French  savant 
and  psychologist, —  or  whether  its  results  only 
appear  as  occasional  inconsistencies,  in  one 
way  or  another  it  makes  a  factor  in  life  with 
which  we  must  inevitably  reckon,  and  in  any 
true  estimation  the  basis  must  be  "  the  whole- 
ness of  character,"  and  not  from  a  mere  frag- 
ment of  it,  represented  by  a  momentary  lapse, 
an  exceptional  action.  If  the  poet  at  times 
writes  lines  that  "dying  he  would  wish  to 
blot,"  so  all  persons  at  times  do  or  say  the 
thing  they  would  gladly  cancel ;  the  word, 
the  assertion,  that  does  not  truly  represent 
their  real  and  abiding  thought  or  conviction ; 
the  act  that  —  practically  —  wis-represents 
(rather  than  represents)  their  real  purpose. 
Out  of  a  moment  of  discordant  conditions 
one  records  some  annoyance  or  vexation  that, 
under  different  conditions,  he  certainly  would 
not  have  communicated  to  any  one.  So  mys- 
teriously are  soul  and  body  interpenetrated 
that  physical  ills  as  often  produce  mental 
94 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


and  even  moral  defects,  as  the  mental  and 
moral  defects  produce  physical  ills.  Action 
and  reaction,  mentally  and  physically,  are 
largely  reciprocal  until  one  has  learned, 
through  culture  of  his  spiritual  powers,  to 
entirely  rule  the  body  as  the  spirit's  instru- 
ment. This  intricate  problem  of  the  multiple 
personality  accounts  for  a  large  share  of  the 
inconsistencies,  the  defects,  the  faults,  the 
serious  errors  of  life.  Of  course  it  may  easily 
be  asked,  "  Which  is  the  true  personality,  — 
the  lower  or  the  higher,  the  cruder  or  the 
finer  manifestation  ?  "  But  it  requires  little 
reflection  to  decide.  The  higher  and  the  finer 
is  of  course  the  real,  because  this  approaches 
the  more  complete  stage  of  evolution. 

"  Every  human  being  possesses  an  inner,  a 
spiritual  set  of  perceptive  functions,  —  ever 
ready  to  serve  when  called  upon,"  says  a 
thoughtful  writer.  "  But  the  prerequisite 
for  all  interior  attainment  lies  in  the  mental 
attitude  of  certainty  as  to  possibility  of  the 
95 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


attainment.  This  means  that  faith  must  be 
called  into  action.  For  faith  is  the  coin  by 
which  the  soul  buys  its  spiritual  powers. 

"To  gain  entrance  into  the  realm  of  intu- 
ition or  the  kingdom  of  angels,  the  aspirant 
must  shun  no  trials,  fear  no  failures.  Again, 
he  must  place  his  mind  on  the  spirit  and  try 
to  fasten  his  soul  energies  on  the  unseen  and 
the  unheard.  He  shall  try  to  live  himself 
into  the  actual  presence  of  an  inner  world, 
and  to  adjust  his  sense-functions  to  the  re- 
quirements of  that  world.  An  arduous,  un- 
ceasing endeavor  to  live  up  to  the  ideal  by 
purifying  every  centre  of  action  and  every 
movement  of  thought  shall  sooner  or  later 
unlock  the  door  to  the  sanctuary.  *  Ask,  and 
it  shall  be  given  you ;  seek,  and  ye  shall  find ; 
knock,  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you.'  To 
the  purified  vision  the  spirit  shall  reveal  its 
riches. 

"  The  development  aimed  at  is  of  the 
heart,  not  of  the  head.  Any  other  training 
96 


TJie  Outlook  Beautiful. 


than  a  moral  and  an  ethical  one,  any  other 
discipline  than  in  the  service  of  God  and 
humanity,  shall  lead  the  aspirant  not  to  the 
light-spheres  of  spiritual  vision,  but  to  spheres 
darkened  by  the  twilights  of  his  self-love,  self- 
satisfaction,  and  egotism.  Exclusive  interest 
in  self  means  isolation,  contraction,  and  final 
death ;  while  interhuman  or  universal  inter- 
ests, connecting  man  with  all  the  mighty  force 
centres  of  being,  mean  expansion,  growth,  and 
boundless  life." 

The  soul  is  always  on  its  progress  toward 
perfection,  and  the  more  nearly  it  manifests 
perfection  at  any  moment,  the  more  real  is 
that  personality.  But  it  is  a  great  step 
toward  the  truer  comprehension  of  the  prob- 
lem of  life  to  realize  that  the  spiritual  man  — 
clothed  upon,  temporarily,  with  a  physical 
body  and  inhabiting  this  physical  world  —  is, 
in  himself,  far  more  ideal  in  every  quality 
than  he  seems  to  be,  because  he  docs  not 
invariably  manifest  his  real  self.  The  ma- 
7  97 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


chine  (the  body)  gets  out  of  tune.  The  spir- 
itual electricity  falls  to  a  low  current,  and 
one  does  or  says  what  he  himself  feels  to  be 
totally  at  variance  with  the  wholeness  of  his 
character.  One  can  only  be  rightly  estimated 
by  his  diviner  moments,  his  more  ideal  mani- 
festations. "  It  is  the  highest  power  of  these 
divine  moments,"  says  Emerson,  "that  they 
abolish  our  contritions  also.  I  accuse  myself 
of  sloth  and  unprofitableness  day  by  day ;  but 
when  these  waves  of  God  flow  into  me,  I  no 
longer  reckon  lost  time.  I  no  longer  poorly 
compute  my  possible  achievement  by  what 
remains  to  me  of  the  month  or  the  year ;  for 
these  moments  confer  a  sort  of  omnipresence 
and  omnipotence  which  asks  nothing  of  dura- 
tion, but  sees  that  the  energy  of  the  mind 
is  commensurate  with  the  work  to  be  done, 
without  time." 

A   clear  comprehension,  however,  of  this 
problem  of  the  multiple  personality  will  en- 
able every  one  to  overcome  it  increasingly  by 
98 


The  Outlook  Beautiful, 


eliminating  all  these  less  divine  moments ;  by 
entirely  dominating  all  less  worthy  manifesta- 
tions in  act,  or  expression,  and  bringing  them 
into  absolute  subjection  to  the  higher,  the 
ideal  self.  One  writer  says  :  — 

"...  Finer  and  infinitely  more  delicately 
wrought  media  than  the  physical  senses  are  re- 
quired for  a  cognition  of  the  transfigured  pres- 
ences dwelling  on  these  exalted  planes. 

"  The  effulgent  radiance  of  this  purer  world 
can  he  endured  only  by  a  purified  inner  vision, 
and  the  harmonies  of  the  spheres  remain  silent 
to  all  who  have  not  evolved  an  inner  sense  of 
hearing.  For  what  is  sympathy  but  the  feeling 
of  the  soul,  through  a  cuticle  before  the  anatomy 
of  which  the  keenest  microscope  falls  powerless ; 
or  love,  if  not  the  inner,  the  spiritual  aspect  of 
attraction  which  in  the  heart  of  hearts  has  its 
centre  of  gravity  1  Every  phase  or  conception 
of  consciousness  which  transcends  the  cognizance 
of  sense-perception  —  the  purely  reasoning  and 
intellect ualizing  mind — pertains  to  the  sphere  of 
intuition.  What  to  the  mind  whose  intuitional 
99 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


properties  are  latent,  or  merely  brooding,  appears 
as  an  impenetrable  mystery,  becomes  to  the  puri- 
fied vision  forms  and  essences  of  transcending 
beauty  and  sacredness." 

On  the  "  exalted  planes "  dwell  not  only 
the  "  transfigured  presences,"  but  the  real  self, 
the  higher  self,  of  each  individual.  It  is  one's 
simple  duty  to  dwell  on  this  plane.  It  is  per- 
fectly possible,  nor  is  it  even  difficult,  for  here 
is  all  harmony  and  beauty  and  happiness.  The 
difficult  thing  is  to  live  on  the  lower  plane,  for 
there  is  the  soul  stifled  and  imprisoned.  The 
spiritual  faculties  can  be  called  upon  for  the 
guidance  and  the  control  of  every  hour  of 
life,  and  they  can  be  so  evolved  and  trained 
as  to  make  "  the  wholeness  of  conduct "  per- 
petually amenable  to  every  high  and  noble 
ideal ;  to  every  exalted  aspiration  and  beauty 
of  achievement. 

This  wholeness  of  conduct  held  perpetually 
amenable  to  the  nobler  ideals  is  conditioned 
on  the  perpetual  trust  in  God,  the  ever-in- 
100 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


creasing    accumulation    of   faith.      We   find 
Phillips  Brooks  saying :  — 

"So  to  the  soul  that  finds  in  all  life  new  and 
ever  deeper  knowledge  of  Christ,  the  Lord  of  Life, 
life  is  forever  accumulating.  Every  passing  event 
gets  a  noble  value  from  the  assurance  that  it  gives 
us  of  God.  This  is  the  only  real  transfiguration 
of  the  dusty  road,  of  the  monotony  and  routine 
of  living.  It  is  all  bright  and  beautiful  if,  in  it 
all,  God  is  giving  us  that  certainty  of  Himself  by 
which  we  shall  be  fit  to  meet  everything  that  we 
shall  have  to  meet  in  this  world  and  the  world  to 
come." 

And  again :  — 

"You  have  been  in  one  business  and  you  are 
going  into  another.  You  have  weighed  all  the 
chances.  You  have  used  all  the  discretion  and 
judgment  that  you  possess.  You  believe  that 
you  are  fit  for  the  larger  work.  And  yet,  as  you 
sit  thinking  it  over  the  night  before  the  new  shop 
is  to  be  opened  and  the  new  advertisement  is  to 
stand  in  the  papers,  you  are  full  of  your  misgiv- 
ings. Shall  I  succeed  ?  Am  I  not  leaving  a  cer- 
101 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


tainty  for  an  uncertainty  ?  I  know  that  God  has 
prospered  me  thus  far,  but  will  He,  can  Ho,  help 
me  here?  And  then,  just  in  proportion  to  the 
purity  and  absoluteness  of  your  confidence  that  it 
has  really  been  God  who  has  helped  you,  and  the 
simplicity  and  completeness  with  which  you  re- 
solve that,  in  the  new  business  as  in  the  old,  you 
will  be  His  obedient  servant  and  put  no  obstacle 
in  the  way  of  His  helping  you  still,  just  in  propor- 
tion to  your  faith  and  consecration,  will  be  the 
courage  with  which  you  see  the  dawn  of  the  new 
day  that  is  to  bring  to  you  the  untried  task." 

These  words  from  Bishop  Brooks  occur  in 
one  of  his  greatest  discourses,  entitled  "  The 
Accumulation  of  Faith."  The  special  mes- 
sage of  the  sermon  is  that  out  of  every  ex-  ' 

( 
perience  one  may  bring,  not   only  gratitude 

and   recognition   of  the   aid   and   light   and 
leading   he   may  have  received,  but  also  — 
greatest  of  all — he  may  bring  a  larger  faith,  j 
The    divine    power    that    has    brought    him 
through  one  great  phase  or  peril ;  the  power 

that  has  enabled  him  to  endure  or  to  achieve, 

1 

102 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


is  ready  to  help  him  in  the  next  special  need, 
or  crisis.  He  has  proven  its  beneficence  and 
its  potency.  With  each  recurring  experience 
he  proves  it  anew,  and  thus  with  the  multi- 
plication of  his  experiences  the  accumulation 
of  his  faith  goes  on,  —  the  faith  that  has  been 
strengthened,  the  faith  that  shall  be.  There 
is  constantly  and  increasingly  realized  the  ab- 
solute practicality,  the  wonderful  potency  of 
the  divine  aid.  It  is  always  at  hand.  It  is 
an  infinite  store  of  energy  surrounding  man 
like  an  atmosphere,  and  the  greater  his  need, 
the  more  largely  can  he  draw  upon  it.  The 
only  limit  is  in  his  own  receptivity.  All  that 
he  can  receive  is  his.  At  any  moment  the 
miracle  may  be  wrought.  "He  smote  the 
stony  rock,  and  the  water  gushed  out.  There- 
fore I  know  He  can  give  me  bread  and  flesh  ; 
He  will  give  me  bread  and  flesh  if  bread  and 
flesh  are  what  I  ought  to  have." 

The  realizations  of  the  past  may  make  the 
prophecies  of  the  future.     We  find  Bishop 
103 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


Brooks  saying :  "  You  look  back  over  the 
years  in  which  you  have  been  trying  to  serve 
your  Saviour,  and  what  do  you  see  ?  Many 
a  temptation  conquered  by  His  strength ; 
many  a  sin  forgiven  and  turned  by  gratitude 
for  His  forgiveness  into  an  inspiration ;  many 
a  hard  crisis  where  Christ  your  Lord  has 
been  all-sufficient  for  you.  Why  is  it  that 
to-day,  in  your  present  temptation,  in  your 
present  need,  you  feel  so  little  sure  of  Him  ? 
A  new  desert  opening  before  you  frightens 
you  even  while  you  remember  with  thanks- 
giving how  He  led  you  through  the  old.  The 
thanksgiving  dies  away  upon  your  lips  for 
the  past  mercy  as  you  come  in  sight  of  the 
new  emergency,  for  the  brave  meeting  of 
which  it  would  seem  as  if  that  past  mercy 
ought  to  have  fitted  you  completely." 

The  "  new  deserts  "  surely  should  not  appall 
those  who  have  been  led  through  the  old. 

"  Who  thinks  at  midnight  morn  will  ever  dawn  ? 
Who  knows,  far  out  at  sea, 
104 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


That  anywhere  is  land  ?  and  yet  a  shore 
Hath  set  behind  us,  and  will  ruse  before. 
A  Past  foretells  a  Future." 

May  not  this,  then,  be  the  watchword  for 
this  new  century,  —  the  ever-cumulative  power 
of  faith  in  life?  The  power  that  makes  it- 
self a  resistless  energy,  a  great  creative  force, 
—  transforming  the  entire  panorama  and  call- 
ing into  actual  existence  all  in  which  it  be- 
lieves, —  this  is  the  power  gained  by  the 
divine  aid  that  prefigures  the  Heaven  of 
Spirit  in  which  we  all  may  live  —  in  which 
we  all  should  live. 

But  is  faith  happiness?  Does  the  former 
presuppose  and  predetermine  and  include  the 
latter?  "Of  course  we  can  all  look  back 
and  see  how  we  have  been  led  and  guided 
and  cared  for,  and  how  when  we  have  reached 
a  point  where  we  absolutely  had  to  have 
help  we  asked  for  it  and  received  it,  and  the 
accumulation  of  faith  means,  or  ought  to 
mean,  peace,  security,  serenity,  and  if  these 
105 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


are  happiness,  then  we  ought  to  be  happy," 
said  a  writer,  in  a  private  letter  discussing  this 
point,  and  added :  "  I  have  always  thought 
I  should  be  happy  if  I  had  an  assured  in- 
come and  no  fear  for  the  morrow." 

Is,  then,  "  an  assured  income  "  happiness  ? 
That  it  may  be  a  potent  factor  in  usefulness 
and  in  serenity  of  mind  is  true,  but  there  are 
few  of  the  material  gifts  or  privileges  of  life 
that  are  absolutely  "assured"  to  any  one, 
.  and  a  good  income  is  not  always  among  them. 
One  can  hardly  conceive  of  its  vanishing  to 
a  Rockefeller  or  a  Vanderbilt ;  but  in  the 
more  moderate  of  even  the  great  fortunes, 
it  is  not  invariably  a  permanent  possession 
and  might  not  a  truer  conception  of  happi- 
ness be  so  to  live  that  possessions  may  come 
and  go  without  the  loss  of  serene  faith ;  or  of 
that  trio  of  qualities, — 

"  Self-reverence,  self-knowledge,  self-control," 

which  "lead  life  to   sovereign  power."     Is 

it  not  happiness  to  keep  at  one's  best  in 

106 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


mental  and  spiritual  conditions?  'To  keep 
faith  in  friendship  even  when  friends  are  faith- 
less ;  to  keep  a  certain  poise  and  energy  and 
persistence  even  where  circumstances  arc  ad- 
verse ;  to  keep,  intact,  one's  faith  in  the 
divine  leading,  even  though  the  path  be  one 
of  hardship?  In  a  word,  is  not  happiness 
the  power  of  so  living  in  the  spirit,  —  in 
qualities  of  intellectual  interest ;  in  gener- 
/ous  aspirations ;  in  the  companionship  of 
ideals;  in  sympathy  with  the  good  fortune 
of  others,  —  is  it  not  possible  so  to  achieve 
this  quality  of  life  as  to  be  happy  even 
when  limitations  and  reverses  invest  our 
days? 

"What  a  man  does,  that  he  has,"  says 
Emerson.  "What  has  he  to  do  with  hope 
or  fear  ?  In  himself  is  his  might.  Let  him 
regard  no  good  as  solid,  but  that  which  is  in 
his  nature,  and  which  must  grow  out  of  him 
as  long  as  he  exists.  The  goods  of  fortune 
may  come  and  go  like  summer  leaves;  let 
107 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


him  scatter  them  on  every  wind  as  the  mo- 
mentary signs  of  his  infinite  productiveness." 
He  may  have  that  which  is  his  own.  A 
man's  genius,  the  quality  that  differentiates 
him  from  every  other ;  the  susceptibility  to 
one  class  of  influences ;  the  selection  of  what 
is  fit  for  him,  the  rejection  of  what  is  unfit,  — 
determines  for  him  the  character  of  the  uni- 
verse. /  A  man  is  a  method,  a  progressive 
arrangement,  a  selecting  principle,  gathering 
his  like  to  him  wherever  he  goes.  "  What 
attracts  my  attention  shall  have  it,"  as  Em- 
erson asserts.  "I  will  go  to  the  man  who 
knocks  at  my  door  whilst  a  thousand  persons, 
as  worthy,  go  by  it,  to  whom  I  give  no  re- 
gard. It  is  enough  that  these  particulars 
speak  to  me.  A  few  anecdotes,  a  few  traits 
of  character,  manners,  face,  a  few  incidents, 
have  an  emphasis  in  your  memory  out  of  all 
proportion  to  their  apparent  significance,  if 
you  measure  them  by  the  ordinary  standards. 
They  relate  to  your  gift.  Let  them  have  their 
108 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


weight,  and  do  not  reject  them  and  cast  about 
for  illustration  and  facts  more  usual  in  liter- 
ature. '  What  your  heart  thinks  great  is  great. 
The  soul's  emphasis  is  always  right." 

The  higher  will  certainly  regulate  events, 
and  that  "  obedience  "  by  which  we  "  become 
divine"  is  not  a  mere  passive  negation  of 
one's  own  will  and  wish  to  the  direction  of 
a  higher  power,  but  this  obedience  is  in  the 
sense  of  entering  into,  and  co-operating  with, 
the  divine  power,  and  thus  making  one's  life 
a  part  of  the  divine  plan. /Happiness  is  a  con- 
cern of  the  spirit.  It  is  a  condition.  It  is 
mental,  moral,  spiritual.  Its  realm  is  above  the 
things  of  earth,  for  it  is  that  peace  which  the 
world  cannot  give,  neither  can  it  take  away. 

One  potent  factor  in  this  peace  achieved  by 
faith  is  that  of  totally  ignoring  any  experience 
of  personal  injustice  or  incomprehensible  an- 
tagonism. "His  heart  was  as  great  as  the 
world,  but  there  was  no  room  in  it  to  hold  the 
memory  of  a  wrong."  Nothing  can  be  more 
109 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


practical  in  its  moral  uplifting,  nothing  more 
ideal  in  its  spiritual  achievement,  than  the 
resolution  that  the  heart  shall  hold  no  mem- 
ory of  a  wrong  in  entering  on  the  initiation  of 
the  Heaven  of  Spirit.  This  initiation  may  be 
made  a  moral  crisis  in  life  by  this  resolution, 
—  to  let  the  heart  hold  no  memory  of  a  wrong 
hereafter,  through  life.  For  there  are  few, 
indeed,  who  are  not  wronged  by  their  fellow- 
men,  and  who  have  not,  intentionally  or  un- 
intentionally, been  the  means  of  wronging 
others.  Misconceptions,  misconstructions,  mis- 
interpretations, are  as  serious  in  their  effects 
of  wrong  as  can  be  more  flagrant  and  pal- 
pable injuries.  Indeed,  the  latter  may  be  no 
comparison  at  all  to  the  former.  One  may 
make  restoration  of  property  and  possessions, 
while  to  restore  an  estimate  of  character,  a 
reputation,  an  ideal  of  individuality,  may  be 
far  more  difficult,  if  not  impossible.  Then, 
too,  the  philosophy  of  misinterpretation,  of 
erroneous  judgment,  goes  even  deeper  than 
110 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


this.  Though  the  misconception  may  never 
be  communicated,  it  is  none  the  less  a  wrong 
for  which  there  is  almost  no  atonement  or 
reparation  in  any  immediate  sense.  It  is  a 
violence  done  to  the  spirit,  which  is  inimical, 
corrosive  in  its  action ;  which  throws  about 
its  object  an  atmosphere  of  gloom,  despond- 
ency, and  discouragement.  It  is  the  hardest 
thing  in  the  world  to  stand  firm,  poised  with 
gladness  and  ardor,  untouched  before  a  recog- 
nized misjudgmcnt  and  misconception.  On 
the  other  hand,  recognizing  the  ideal  nature 
of  another  absolutely  develops  that  nature. 
Faith  is  the  most  potent  of  all  the  creative 
forces.  It  creates  that  in  which  it  believes. 
It  is  the  sunshine  and  the  electricity  that  de- 
velop the  germ  to  its  beautiful  fruition.  So, 
of  all  gifts,  give  this.  Of  all  gifts,  give  love, 
give  belief,  give  patience,  give  faith. 

"  Faith  shares  the  future's  promise  ;  love's 

Self-offering  is  a  triumph  won : 
And  each  good  word  and  action  moves 
The  dark  world  nearer  to  the  sun." 
Ill 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


If  in  any  heart  there  is  "the  memory  of 
a  wrong,"  shall  it  not  be  banished  on  this 
recognition  of  a  nobler  life?  Let  there  be 
"  no  room  to  hold  the  memory  of  a  wrong." 
Whatever  it  is,  however  great  or  small,  for- 
give,—  forgive  entirely  and  forget  as  en- 
tirely. Let  it  be  absolutely  complete,  —  the 
forgiving  and  the  forgetting.  Thus  is  one 
spiritually  prepared  to  go  onward  and  upward 
into  a  World  Beautiful,  into  a  Life  Radiant, 
into  a  Paradise  Divine !  For  paradise  is  not 
geographical  in  its  location,  but  a  spiritual 
state,  a  condition,  that  may  be  entered  into 
on  earth  to-day.  Indeed,  it  is  not  only  that 
to  each  and  all  there  is  the  privilege  of  enter- 
ing into  paradise  to-day ;  into  that  exaltation 
of  spirit  which  absolute  forgiveness  and  for- 
getfulness  of  any  wrong  and  absolute  good- 
will and  love  inevitably  create ;  there  is  not 
merely  the  privilege  of  entering  into  this  ex- 
altation, but  the  duty  of  it.  It  is  the  revealed 
obligation  of  life.  The  words  are  good  to 
112 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


remember  and  to  fulfil,  —  "  His  heart  was  as 
great  as  the  world,  but  there  was  no  room  in 
it  to  hold  the  memory  of  a  wrong." 

"  For,"  as  Rev.  William  Brunton  well  says, 
"  the  Beatitudes  are  as  provable  as  the  prob- 
lems of  mathematics.  I  have  only  to  look 
about  me  and  note  the  states  of  mind  of  my 
neighbors  to  see  the  word  of  Jesus  made 
good.  )  Blessed  are  the  poor,  the  meek,  the 
merciful,  the  pure,  the  enduring  of  evil.  Do 
I  not  witness  that  where  blessedness  is,  there 
are  these  states  of  soul?  I  can  come  closer 
to  demonstration  than  that.  I  can  find  an- 
swer in  my  own  experience.  I  never  did  a 
good  thing  without  being  repaid  in  good.  I 
am  positive  of  its  pleasure  and  reward  imme- 
diately and  always  when  I  give  myself  to  it. 
Religious  men  are  not  fools,  and  they  would 

j  never  have  been  allured  by  a  blessed  world 
beyond  if  they  had  not  made  sure  that  it  was 
here  and  now.  Virtue  is  its  own  reward, 

I  and  therefore  its  own  evidence  of  endurance." 

^      8  113 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


In  these  words  Mr.  Brunton,  whose  ser- 
mons contribute  so  much  to  the  higher  illumi- 
nation of  life  and  whose  poems  are  perpetual 
sunshine  and  inspiration,  has  formulated  a 
practical  truth. 

That  the  Beatitudes  are  as  provable  as  any 
problem  in  mathematics  is  forever  true,  and  it 
is  a  truth  that  offers  an  unerring  clew  to  the 
entire  labyrinth  of  life.  To  live  by  the  Beati- 
tudes,—  to  live  in  sweetness  and  gentleness 
of  spirit;  in  love,  in  courtesy,  in  generosity, 
— just  by  this  quality  of  living  all  perplexi- 
ties, all  trials,  solve  themselves.  The  moment 
one  attains  spiritual  poise  and  harmony,  out- 
ward conditions  conform  to  these.  The  qual- 
ity of  life  holds  the  secret  of  all  events  and 
circumstances.  The  inner  peace  inevitably 
creates  outer  harmony. 

"  Love  manifests  as  harmony  of  vibration,"  says 
a  thoughtful  writer,  "and  friction,  discord,  and 
wrangling  are  deadly  foes  to  health  aud  joy. 

"  Live  at  peace  with  thine  own  household  and 
114 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


with   thy   neighbor   if  them   wouldst   enjoy   the 
blessing  of  a  sweet  and  spiritual  life. 

"Disease  (dis-ease)  is  nothing  but  a  form  of 
inharmony  (in-harmony,  or  harmony  turned  in 
when  it  should  be  flowing  out  in  vibrations  of  love 
and  good-will),  and  all  forms  of  sickness  are  due 
to  an  effort  of  Nature  to  restore  harmonious 
action  upon  the  part  of  the  different  organs  of 
the  body. 

"  The  quickest  way  to  restore  harmony  and 
health  to  a  diseased  body  is  to  put  in  operation 
the  law  of  non-resistance.  It  is  resistance  which 
causes  all  inharmony.  The  advice,  '  Resist  not 
evil,'  is  scientific  advice.  To  resist  an  evil  is  to 
endow  it  with  life  and  power.  The  more  stren- 
uous your  resistance,  the  more  powerful  becomes 
the  evil.  Let  go  of  it,  and  Nature  will  restore 
you  to  harmony. 

"If  your  life  is  filled  with  jangling  mental 
discords,  you  will  repel  people  and  things.  Do 
not  say  that  the  discords  in  your  life  are  due  to 
outside  influences  over  which  you  have  no  control. 
Such  is  not  the  case.  The  kingdom  of  your  soul 
belongs  to  you  alone,  and  no  outside  power  can 
invade  that  kingdom  except  by  your  permission. 
115 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


Therefore,  if  your  life  manifests  discords,  it  is  be- 
cause you  entertain  them  in  your  inner  kingdom. 

"  It  is  possible  to  preserve  your  sense  of  peace 
and  poise  amidst  any  and  all  the  clamor  of  the 
outer  world.  If  you  allow  the  inharmonious  to 
poison  your  soul,  if  you  entertain  greed,  envy, 
resentment,  hate,  and  the  whole  foul  brood  of 
negative  emotions,  then  you  alone  are  responsible 
for  the  consequences. 

"At  the  centre  of  your  being  dwells  the  Real 
Self,  in  a  state  of  Eternal  harmony  which  nothing 
can  disturb.  Recognize  this  Real  Self  as  ever 
present  amid  all  the  turmoil  of  the  outer  life,  and 
you  will  gradually  build  up  a  sublime  conscious- 
ness of  peace  and  strength  which  nothing  can 
upset. 

"Cherish  this  inner  kingdom  and  preserve  your 
consciousness  of  inner  peace  and  quiet  above  all 
things." 

The  test  of  this  philosophy  comes  when 
one  comes  in  immediate  contact  with  injus- 
tice, with  malice,  with  intentional  wrong. 
Is  one  to  submit  to  evil  rather  than  to  re- 
sist it  ?  The  circumstances  under  which  one 
116 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


must  face  this  question  are  so  varied  that 
no  absolute  rule  can  be  adopted.  There  are 
times  when  the  resistance  of  evil,  the  "  right- 
eous indignation,"  seems  the  diviner  leadiug. 
Jesus  drove  the  money-changers  from  the 
temple.  To  bring  life  to  the  dead  level  of 
an  unvarying  and  monotonous  acceptance  of 
every  phase  would  surely  be  to  debase  the 
soul  and  to  destroy  the  high  and  delicate 
standards  of  all  that  is  true  and  fine  and  of 
good  report.  Yet  antagonism  must  be  un- 
varyingly exterminated,  and  it  must  be  done 
now  and  here  while  in  the  earth  life.  One 
may  help  the  erring  to  take  part  against  his 
error  rather  than  to  relegate  him  to  an  atmos- 
phere of  hatred  because  of  his  defects.  The 
perfect  harmony  can  be  cultivated  without 
compromise  with  evil.  "Harmony,"  indeed, 
"  is  omnipresent.  It  may  be  sought  —  by 
coming  into  a  mental  state  of  oneness  and 
agreement  with  the  One  Life.  Let  the  per- 
sonal self,  with  its  fleshly  desires  and  crav- 
117 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


ings,  learn  of  the  soul.  Go  into  the  blessed 
eternal  silence;  still  the  clamorous  voice  of 
the  senses,  and  learn  what  the  soul  has  to 
teach  you.  It  will  show  you  the  way  to 
health  and  harmony  and  eternal  joy.  It 
will  open  the  path  before  you.  The  voice 
of  the  silence  will  instruct  and  lead  all  in 
ways  of  quietness  and  peace.  Follow  its 
leading  until  at  last  thou  shalt  enter  eternal 
harmony." 

It  is  a  fatal  error,  it  is  a  great  loss  of  hap- 
piness and  of  effective  conditions  for  work, 
to  imagine  that  this  finer  and  higher  state  of 
mental  poise  is  something  only  to  be  attained 
in  some  vague  hereafter.  It  should  be  achieved 
now  and  here.  An  ideal  state  of  living  is 
something  to  be  achieved,  practically,  and 
experienced  and  enjoyed  in  the  immediate 
present.  Life  is  simply  a  succession  of  spir- 
itual states,  and  the  higher  and  nobler  may 
be  sought  and  attained  as  well  here  as  here- 
after. The  sooner  one  achieves  it,  the  nearer 
118 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


is  he  to  the  eternal  blessedness.  The  nearer 
is  he,  also,  to  all  noble  and  energetic  initia- 
tion and  to  that  state  in  which  he  brings 
power  to  bear  on  life.  "Why  should  one 
live  in  the  cellar  when  he  may  as  well 
live  in  light  and  beauty  upstairs?"  Mrs. 
Abby  Morton  Diaz  used  to  question.  The 
significance  impresses  one.  Why,  indeed, 
should  one  live  in  dark  and  discord  rather 
than  in  loveliness  and  all  rnagic  and  music 
and  enchantment  ?  Blessedness  is  a  state 
of  the  soul,  and  it  is  one  in  which  all 
may  dwell  at  will.  The  Beatitudes  are,  in- 
deed, demonstrable  in  every  hour  of  daily 
life. 

For  thus  may  peace,  even  that  peace  of 
God  which  passeth  all  understand-  An  inward 
ing,  be  ours. 

"  Let  us  then  labor  for  an  inward  stillness,  — 
An  inward  stillness  and  an  inward  healing  ; 
That  perfect  silence  when  the  lips  and  heart 
Are  still,  and  we  no  longer  entertain 
Our  own  imperfect  thoughts  and  vain  opinions, 

119 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


But  God  alone  speaks  in  us,  and  we  wait 
In  singleness  of  heart  that  we  may  know 
His  will,  and  in  the  silence  of  our  spirits, 
That  we  may  do  His  will,  and  do  that  only." 

The  Theosophists,  who  avow  themselves 
lovers  of  all  wisdom  and  seekers  after  its 
best  results,  analyze  the  being  into  seven 
principles,  or  bodies,  and  denominate  one 
"the  Thought  Body,"  of  which  it  is  said: 
"  The  mental  body  is  being  built  by  thoughts. 
It  will  be  the  vehicle  of  consciousness  in  the 
heavenly  world,  but  is  being  built  now  by  as- 
pirations, by  imagination,  reason,  judgment, 
artistic  faculties,  by  the  use  of  all  mental 
powers.  Such  as  the  man  makes  it,  so  must 
he  wear  it."  Nor  is  this  term — the  "  thought 
body  "  —  a  mere  vagary.  Every  thought  is 
registered  on  the  outward  form,  and  the  en- 
tire personality  is  the  result  of  the  habitual 
thought  of  the  individual.  Changing  the  cur- 
rents of  thought  transform  the  entire  body. 
The  mental  action  constantly  creates,  destroys, 
120 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


rearranges,  and  readjusts.  According  to  the 
seer,  the  atmosphere  about  man  consists  of 
three  distinct  sublimated  bodies,  —  the  astral 
or  emotional  body,  the  mental  body,  and  the 
causal  body;  the  three  interpenetrating  and 
interacting,  and  all  three  penetrating  and  act- 
ing in  and  through  the  physical  body,  much 
as  the  nerve  systems  of  the  body  interpene- 
trate, interact,  and  co-exist. 

The  astral  or  emotional  body  of  man  is  next 
in  degree  finer  than  the  physical  body.  It  is 
directly  influenced  by  the  body,  and  in  turn 
directly  influences  the  body. 

Now  the  regeneration  of  one's  life,  —  which 
need  not  wait  on  the  change  called  death,  but 
may  be  achieved,  now  and  here,  any  day,  any 
hour,  according  to  the  intensity  and  the  exal- 
tation of  the  degree  of  thought  brought  to 
bear,  —  this  regeneration  is  scientific  as  well 
as  ethical. 

"If  we  would  set  about   the  improvement  of 
an  astral  body,"  says  an  authority,  "it  is  well 
121 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


to  remember  that  it  is  the  vehicle  of  passion, 
emotion,  and  desire,  and  it  is  directly  affected 
by  the  particular  emotions  and  desires  which  we 
allow  ourselves ;  any  form  of  self-seeking,  say  of 
anger  or  of  self-pity  in  sorrow  which  has  self 
as  its  centre,  immediately  diffuses  its  own  ills; 
whilst  unselfish  emotions  and  desires  operate  in 
the  opposite  direction  and  result  in  an  increase 
of  joy,  hope,  and  courage.  This  body  is  also 
greatly  influenced  from  above  by  the  condition 
of  the  mental  body,  and  from  below  by  the  clean- 
liness and  purity  of  the  physical  life,  and  still 
more  remotely  by  the  food  we  eat  and  drink; 
exactly  the  same  law  operates  in  the  well-being 
of  the  mental  body,  and  thoughts  which  find  a 
lodgment  in  the  mind  affect  the  vibrations  of  the 
mind  body;  if  the  thought  be  pure  and  lofty, 
finer  material  and  a  higher  rate  of  vibration  are 
required  to  express  it,  and  as  this  body  inter- 
penetrates and  influences  directly  and  indirectly 
the  other  bodies,  the  whole  character  is  uplifted, 
and  the  physical  body  itself  shares  in  this  im- 
provement ;  an  exactly  opposite  result  takes 
place  when  coarse  and  sordid  thoughts  are  held 
in  the  mind ;  the  mind-body  is  also  influenced 
122 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


indirectly  from  above  or  below,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  astral  body." 

The  mind  operates  directly  on  the  astral 
body,  which  is  controlled  and  created  by  the 
quality  and  degree  of  intensity  brought  to 
bear  on  it  by  thought.  All  significant  results 
begin  in  the  silence  and  there  germinate  and 
develop.  It  is  in  "  the  inward  stillness  "  that 
true  power  lies.  The  gardener  advises  that 
the  rosebushes  shall  be  let  alone,  if  one 
wants  the  utmost  beauty  and  fragrance  of 
the  rose.  Rev.  B.  Fay  Mills  teaches  that 
if  one  uses  his  powers  to  the  greatest  limit 
he  will  acquire  the  capacity  to  create  circum- 
stances. He  says:  "I  am  what  I  choose 
to  be.  It  is  learning  this  that  will  make 
a  man  an  angel  rather  than  an  animal.  We 
have  learned  this  to  some  extent.  We  say 
that  we  control  our  bodies  and  create  our 
circumstances;  but  we  will  find  that  it  is 
just  as  easy  to  create  our  bodies  and  control 
our  circumstances.  If  this  body  does  not 
123 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


suit  my  purposes,  I  will  learn  to  create  one. 
If  these  circumstances  are  not  appropriate, 
the  one  thing  we  are  here  for  is  to  make 
them  appropriate. 

"  Electricity  was  in  the  world  for  some  mil- 
lions of  years  before  man  found  it  out,"  con- 
tinues Mr.  Mills.  "  He  did  not  learn  how  to 
run  an  electric  car  until  twelve  or  fifteen  years 
ago.  He  was  not  able  to  send  his  thought 
around  the  world.  Electricity  is  the  greatest 
thing  we  have  discovered,  but  it  is  not  the 
greatest  thing  we  ever  shall  discover. 

"  Know  !  know  !  I  beseech  you  ;  know  !  I 
command  that  you  are  divine.  You  are  not 
poor  weak  mortals,  as  you  have  called  your- 
selves. You  are  not  bodies  that  may  be 
preyed  upon  by  disease,  and  broken  and 
destroyed  by  other  forces  of  nature;  minds 
with  wills  not  yet  sufficiently  strong  to  with- 
stand certain  great  forms  of  temptation ;  hearts 
that  must  suffer  and  break.  You  are  souls ; 
souls  that  are  one  with  me,  the  great  Uiii- 
124 


TJie  Outlook  Beautiful. 


versal,  Eternal,  Omnipotent  Soul  of  Life. 
Know  that  the  resources  of  divinity  are  your 
resources  !  Know  that  your  body  and  your 
mind  are  but  instruments  for  your  use  —  nay, 
more,  that  they  are  but  expressions  of  your 
spirit,  your  real  life,  that  you  may  control  and 
adapt  them,  and  farther  on  you  may  create 
them  at  your  will.  Why  should  they  ever  be 
weak  ?  Why  should  you  ever  be  ill  unless 
you  choose  ?  You  shall  learn  the  meaning  of 
the  words  of  that  great  Master  of  the  art  of 
living,  when  He  said :  1 1  have  power  to  lay 
down  my  life,  and  I  have  power  to  take  it 
again.' " 

The  individual  has  increasing  power  over 
his  own  life  just  in  proportion  as  he  achieves 
the  ability  to  enter  into  "the  inward  still- 
ness "  and  there  create  in  thought  the  events 
and  circumstances  that  express  his  nobler 
ideals  and  which  will  then  shape  themselves 
in  the  outer  life.  Jesus  said,  "I  and  my 
Father  are  one."  It  is  not  irreverent  to  feel 
125 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


that  in  a  degree  —  an  increasing  degree  — 
man,  too,  may  identify  himself  with  God 
and  be  one  with  Him  in  all  pure  and  holy 
purposes. 

To  what  degree,  we  may  well  inquire,  is 
self-denial  a  factor  in  creating  for  one's  own 
soul  this  atmosphere  of  peace  and  "inward 
stillness  "  ? 

Self-denial  has  been  so  canonized  as  a  virtue 
that  it  may  indeed  be  pardonable  if  self-abne- 
gation and  self-effacement  are  not  infrequently 
mistaken  for  it,  with  great  surprise  that  the 
results  are  not  all  that  those  of  a  pure  and 
lofty  sacrifice  should  give  to  one  who  has  ful- 
filled it  to  the  utmost.  A  man  gives  to  his 
neighbor  things  that  are  due,  and  adds  to 
that  the  giving  up  of  things  undue,  and  re- 
joices in  spirit  that  he  is  following  after 
divine  ideals.  He  meditates  on  the  Christ 
who  came,  "not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but 
to  minister,"  and  longs  with  the  most  ardent 
desire  to  live  this  aspiration  into  actual 
126 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


outward  experience.  Ethical  literature  and 
teachings  foster  this  ideal  to  a  great  degree, 
and  when  it  does  not  work  well  in  actual 
practice,  the  follower  redoubles  his  zeal  and 
throws  into  the  scale  still  more  largely  all  that 
he  possesses,  and  consoles  himself  with  some 
vague  philosophy  of  laying  up  treasures  in 
heaven.  He  deprives  himself,  it  may  be,  of 
all  those  conditions  which  constitute  his  real 
power  for  usefulness ;  he  possesses  the  ring  of 
Gyges,  and  he  throws  it  into  the  sea.  But 
the  fishes  have  no  use  for  this  spell  of  power, 
and  are  none  the  better  for  it.  They  cannot 
possess  it,  and  the  owner  has  relinquished  it. 
He  still  holds  to  the  faith  that  sometime, 
somewhere,  somehow,  his  act  shall  result  in 
good,  for,  behold !  is  it  not  an  act  of  sacrifice  ? 
Is  it  not  self-denial  ?  Is  it  not  ministry  ?  And 
for  what  other  cause  came  he  into  this  world  ? 
And  for  what  other  cause  is  he  a  thoughtful 
and  aspiring  being,  with  recognition  and  rev- 
erence for  spiritual  laws  ?  It  would  surprise 
127 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


him  very  much  to  be  told  that  he  had  done 
the  distinctively  wrong  rather  than  the  right 
thing ;  that  his  act  was  really  one  of  igno- 
rance and  darkness  rather  than  of  knowledge 
and  illumination ;  practically,  in  its  results, 
an  act  of  cowardice  rather  than  courage,  of 
defeat  rather  than  of  achievement.  Out  of 
all  the  mingled  potencies  of  heredity,  environ- 
ment, and  achievement  he  had  created  certain 
conditions  which  were  his  responsibility,  as 
well  as  his  privilege,  to  use  aright.  These 
gave  to  him  certain  powers  which  were  his 
instrument ;  which  represented  to  him  all  his 
possibilities  of  service.  He  saw  their  value  ; 
but  the  more  valuable  they  seemed  to  be,  the 
more  was  he  possessed  with  the  conviction 
that  he  should  give  them  away!  Now  this 
is  not  philosophy,  but  fanaticism.  It  is  not 
noble ;  it  is  ignoble ;  it  is  the  enervating 
rather  than  the  energetic.  He  flings  away  all 
his  treasures  and  then  he  wonders  at  the  in- 
gratitude on  the  part  of  those  who  receive 
123 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


them.  "  Grateful  ?  "  Of  course  the  recipient 
is  not  grateful.  He  is  very  likely  bewildered. 
He  has  had  poured  upon  him  something  that 
does  not  in  the  least  fit  into  his  scheme 
of  life,  for  which  he  has  no  conceivable 
use ;  and  if  he  is  a  peculiarly  dense  be- 
ing, very  likely  something  not  unlike  re- 
sentment, even,  springs  up  in  his  mind  to 
one  who  has  apparently  placed  him  under 
some  kind  of  an  obligation  which  he  never 
desired,  and  which  is  a  burden  rather  than 
a  blessing. 

In  a  recent  periodical  Mr.  John  Milton 
Scott  writes  on  "  Self-Effacement,  or  Self- 
Fulfilment,"  and  says: — 

"  It  was  not  self-effacement,  but  self-fulfilment, 
that  gave  us  Jesus  and  all  His  great  work  in  the 
world.  He  became  so  highly  individualized  in 
His  religious  nature,  in  His  genius  for  loving  and 
helping,  for  enchanting  into  His  own  heart  the 
secrets  of  the  Most  High,  that  the  world  has 
gotten  from  Him  its  divinest  aspirations  in  reli- 
9  129 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


gion,  in  loving,  and  in  helping,  its  most  exalting 
visions  of  God. 

"To  be  as  perfect  a  man  as  possible,  to  fill  out 
the  measure  of  one's  manhood,  heaped  full  and 
running  over,  was  the  ideal  which  Jesus  set  be- 
fore Himself  and  before  all  men.  To  be  able  to 
sound  all  the  notes  of  life  and  being  in  a  perfect- 
ing harmony  is  to  fulfil  the  universe  and  become 
such  child  as  God  thought  about  when  He  in- 
vented us  in  the  deeps  of  His  Fatherhood. 

"  But  you  say  He  taught  the  doctrine  of  self- 
denial  !  Yes !  but  not  the  doctrine  of  self-efface- 
ment. His  doctrine  of  self-denial  was  simply  the 
doctrine  of  continuous  growth,  that  we  should 
not  pause  and  waste  our  energies  in  the  low 
leaves  of  our  lives,  but  that  we  should  build  up 
the  central  stalk,  throwing  out  new  leaves,  get- 
ting into  the  glory  of  our  blossoms,  deepening 
into  the  splendor  of  our  fruits.  He  came  eating 
and  drinking,  and  His  enemies  said  that  he  was  a 
gluttonous  man  and  a  wine-bibber.  Full  as  His 
life  was  of  self-denial,  full  as  His  teachings  are 
of  self-denial,  He  never  warrants  any  self-denial 
for  self-denial's  sake.  No  wound  is  to  be  given 
for  the  sake  of  the  ache.  In  pain  there  is  no 
130 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


glory.  Joy  is  the  ordered  truth  of  the  universe. 
All  life  is  to  be  used,  not  abused,  by  excesses; 
to  be  used  in  its  moderate  contributions  to  the 
growth  and  expression  of  the  whole  man,  of  the 
whole  human  life.  So  universal  is  the  human 
life  that  it  should  enrich  itself  with  all  noble 
experiences,  with  all  noble  sympathies,  with  all 
noble  joys,  that  so  it  may  grow  by  the  expression 
of  itself,  even  as  the  growth  of  a  tree  is  by  the 
expression  of  itself  in  countless  blossoms  and 
measureless  fruit." 

Another  very  valuable  view  of  this  sub- 
ject is  thus  expressed  by  Dr.  Charles  Brodie 
Patterson :  — 

"  Very  much  of  the  so-called  self-denial  prac- 
tised is  of  absolutely  no  benefit  to  its  possessors, 
or  any  one  else  for  that  matter.  Analyzed  hon- 
estly, it  is  the  quintessence  of  selfishness,  which, 
in  its  turn,  becomes  the  seed  of  other  vices.  And 
it  is  just  these  masked  vices  —  these  wolves  in 
sheep's  clothing  —  that  are  the  most  insidious 
enemies  of  real  development,  of  the  well-rounded, 
efficient  life.  .  .  . 

131 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


"  The  religion  of  asceticism,  which  only  asks 
for  room  to  deny  ourselves,  is  the  religion  of 
spiritual  dwarfs,  —  starved  and  misshapen  souls, 

—  not  the  song  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of  God. 
The  voluntary,  usually  pui-poseless  and  uncalled- 
for,  renunciation  of  the  means  of  growth  is  the 
expression  of  a  warped  and  near-sighted  nature,  — 
a  nature  that  needs  to  be  renewed  in  the  spirit 
of  its  mind  before  it  can  carry  the  message  of  the 
newer  life,  the  life  more  abundant. 

"  Self-denial  in  the  truest,  the  interior  sense,  is 
only  the  losing  of  one's  life  that  one  may  find  it 
again,  —  the  merging  of  the  individual  life  with 
the  good  of  the  common  life  of  all.  .  .  .  Once  a 
soul  realizes  its  true  relationship  to  all  humanity, 

—  that  the  part  is  just  as  necessary  to  the  whole 
as  the  whole  is  to  the  part,  that  humanity's  rights 
can  never  be  conserved  through  the  forfeiting  of 
its  own,  —  the  morbid  fungus  growth  that  passes 
for  self-denial  will  disappear.  .  .  . 

"  The  love  of  self  is  as  essential  to  the  well- 
balanced  mind  as  the  love  of  others.  The  truly 
virtuous  mind  is  the  one  that  preserves  its  own 
integrity  of  thought  and  action.  The  great  body 
of  humanity  is  one.  The  strength  and  perfection 
132 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


of  any  part  is  essential  to  the  completion  of  the 
whole." 

And  again  Dr.  Patterson  says :  — 

"  In  order  to  be  truly  of  service  one  must  first 
be  a  true  man,  a  true  woman.  One  must  be 
carrying  out  God's  plan,  if  he  would  bear  a  God- 
like message  to  his  fellows.  Common  sense,  the 
same  God-given  common  sense  that  is  efficient  in 
the  everydayness  of  our  bread-and-butter  lives, 
is,  too,  the  handmaid  of  the  highest  virtue.  We 
can  never  hasten  the  growth  or  increase  the  effi- 
ciency of  anything  —  in  the  spiritual  world  any 
more  than  in  the  physical  world  —  by  depriving 
it  of  the  rational  means  of  subsistence  and  devel- 
opment. Duties  —  real  duties  —  can  never  clash. 
Nothing  essentially  good  can  be  lost.  Each  ac- 
tion, as  a  stage  of  development,  must,  because  of 
the  unifying  motive  of  the  whole,  lead  fittingly 
and  surely  to  larger  development,  God-glorifying 
growth ;  else  the  action  was  clearly  not  a  duty, 
not  good  essentially ;  its  motive,  fearlessly  ana- 
ly/edj  will  be  found  a  purely  selfish  one.  .  .  . 

"  Injustice  to  one's  self,  though  frequently  la- 
belled unselfishness  and  self-sacrifice,  is  injustice 
133 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


all  the  same,  and  must  of  necessity  work  for  in- 
harmony  in  its  final  outcome.  .  .  .  Self-denial  is 
a  beautiful  thing  when  it  is  true,  but  the  self- 
sacrifice  that  is  at  heart  self-seeking  or  morbid  is, 
in  reality,  one  of  the  most  insidious  forms  of  self- 
ishness, and  will  never  bring  about  a  harmonious 
environment." 

All  this  is  quoting  at  somewhat  undue 
length,  but  the  truth  is  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant in  all  the  range  of  ethical  philosophy, 
and  nowhere  has  it  ever  been  more  forcibly 
and  clearly  stated.  As  Phillips  Brooks  so 
well  said :  "  You  can  help  your  fellow-men, 
you  must  help  your  fellow-men,  but  the  only 
way  you  can  truly  help  them  is  by  being  the 
noblest  and  the  best  man  that  it  is  possible 
for  you  to  be.  And  how,"  he  adds,  "shall 
one  do  it  ?  By  cultivating  himself.  Instantly 
he  is  thrown  back  upon  his  own  life.  —  For 
their  sakes  I  sanctify  myself.  I  am  my  best 
not  simply  for  myself,  but  for  the  world.  .  .  . 
The  man  who  makes  that  the  law  of  his 
134 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


existence  neither  neglects  himself  nor  his  fel- 
low-men ;  becoming  neither  the  self-absorbed 
student  and  cultivator  of  himself  on  the  one 
hand,  nor  abandoning  himself  to  be  simply 
the  wasting  benefactor  of  his  brethren  on  the 
other  hand." 

'.  Now  a  false  ideal  is  a  very  pernicious,  a 
very  dangerous  thing.  The  finer  the  nature  ; 
the  more  uncompromisingly  loyal  to  accepted 
spiritual  laws  is  the  man  or  woman,  the  more 
dangerous  it  is  to  fix  the  imagination  on  an 
untrue  standard  of  action.  We  live  by  our 
beliefs,  our  aspirations,  and  our  faiths.  Those 
are  not  merely  "  such  stuff  as  dreams  are 
made  of,"  but  they  are  the  very  texture  of 
our  daily  life.  And  to  follow  a  false  ideal 
is  to  get  on  the  wrong  trail  altogether,  and 
the  more  earnestly  and  loyally  it  is  followed, 
the  more  remotely  does  one  wander  from  the 
paths  of  true  peace  and  righteousness.  One's 
conditions  of  life,  in  health,  wealth,  or  what- 
ever degree  of  possessions  there  may  be;  in 
135 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


a  margin  of  leisure  and  solitude  for  study, 
work,  and  growth,  —  one's  powers  and  capa- 
bilities in  all  ways  are,  in  the  true  sense,  his 
responsibilities.  He  has  no  moral  right  to 
sacrifice  them.  Between  a  true  and  holy  self- 
denial  and  a  mere  morbid  and  weak  self- 
effacement  there  is  a  great  gulf  fixed.  "  Be 
courteous,  be  obliging,  Dan,"  said  Sir  Hugo 
to  Daniel  Deronda,  "  but  don't  give  yourself 
over  to  be  melted  down  for  the  tallow  trade." 

This  counsel  may  well  be  kept  in  mind  as 
good  ethics  as  well  as  good  sense. 

Yet,  self-denial  has  its  place  among  the 
diviner  qualities.  The  friend,  in  any  true 
sense  of  the  term,  is  one  who  can  bear  and 
hope  and  believe,  —  even  against  the  seem- 
ingly unendurable,  the  hopeless,  the  denied. 
Tli  is  spirit  is  ideally  interpreted  in  an  exqui- 
site poem  by  Frederic  Laurence  Knowles,  of 
which  some  stanzas  run :  — 

"  I  gave  you  all  that  I  had, 
And  the  giving  made  me  glad. 
136 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


So  great  was  my  love  the  while 
I  asked  neither  thanks  nor  smile. 

"  If  you  would  only  let  me  pour 
My  service  before  your  door, 
My  worship  around  your  feet, 
The  days  and  the  nights  were  sweet. 

"  I  have  owned  life's  costliest  thing; 
Though  I  have  drunk  from  a  spring 
Where  my  thirst  could  never  slake, 
I  have  given  up  all  for  your  sake." 

But  sacrifice  and  sadness  are  by  no  means 
the  same.  There  is  an  exhilaration  of  joy 
possible  to  sacrifice  which  could  never  be 
realized  through  any  other  experience. 

"  I  gave  you  all  that  I  had, 
And  the  giving  made  me  glad." 

The  two  terse  little  lines  condense  an  entire 
philosophy  of  life.  "  Our  friendships  hurry  to 
short  and  poor  conclusions,  because  we  have 
made  them  a  texture  of  wine  and  dreams,  in- 
stead of  the  tough  fibre  of  the  human  heart," 
said  Emerson,  and  he  added,  "  I  do  not  wish 
137 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


to  treat  friendship  tenderly  but  with  roughest 
courage."  The  friendship  that  is  real  is  sim- 
ply indestructible.  It  can  enter  into  the  home- 
liest needs  of  life,  for  it  is  no  affair  of  mere 
"  wine  and  dreams."  It  is  a  sacramental 
relation.  "  Those  who  meet  in  good  can 
never  be  separated,"  runs  an  Eastern  proverb. 
Distance  may  intervene ;  the  tragedy  of  misun- 
derstandings may  arise,  but  beyond  and  above 
the  clouds  the  glory  lives  undimmed.  Such 
friendship  as  this  is  a  spiritual  relation,  and 
while  one  "  may  throw  off  the  hand  of  flesh, 
he  can  never  lose  the  clasp  of  spirit."  Ideal 
friendship,  however,  is  only  possible  between 
ideal  natures ;  those  who  can  look  through  and 
beyond  all  the  rubbish  of  temporary  imperfec- 
tions and  mutually  recognize  in  each  other 
the  spiritual  realities,  —  the  qualities  that  will 
persist  to  a  finer  inflorescence.  Such  friend- 
ships are  almost  inevitably  linked  with  great 
pain  and  sorrow,  but  even  their  pain  and 
sacrifice  are  more  precious  than  the  cheap 
138 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


and  common  joys.      The  poet   crystallizes  a 
great  truth  in  these  lines:  — 

"  If  Love  were  jester  at  the  court  of  Death, 

And  Death  the  king  of  all,  still  would  I  pray, 
'  For  me  the  motley  and  the  bauble,  yea, 
Though  all  be  vanity,  as  the  preacher  saith, 
The  mirth  of  love  be  mine  for  one  brief  breath  ! ' 
Then  would  I  kneel  the  monarch  to  obey, 
And  kiss  that  pale  hand,  should  it  spare  or  slay ; 
Since  I  have  tasted  love,  what  inattereth  1 
But  if,  dear  God!  this  heart  be  dry  as  sand, 

And  cold  as  Charon's  palm  holding  Hell's  toll, 
How  worse,  how  worse!    Scorch  it  with  sorrow's 

brand ! 
Haply,   though  dead   to  joy,   't  would   feel  that 

coal ; 

Better  a  cross,  and  nails  through  either  hand, 
Than  Pilate's  palace  and  a  frozen  soul." 

It  is  not  the  sorrow,  but  the  "  frozen  soul," 
the  nature  impervious  to  all  delicate  and  in- 
tense feeling,  from  which  one  would  pray  to  be 
delivered.  If  the  experience  of  a  sacramental 
friendship  involves  suffering,  one  may  yet  wel- 
come the  very  pain  it  involves,  for  it  is  an 
initiation  into  a  higher  order  of  life.  The 
139 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


perfecting  of  any  exceptional  relation  involves 
the  entire  regeneration  of  the  natures  of  both, 
and  this  process  implies  pain.  The  merely 
shallow  and  selfish  relations  do  not  survive 
this  purifying  process,  which  lifts  the  entire 
nature  to  a  plane  transcending  space  and  time, 
and  endows  it  with  an  unspeakable  degree  of 
energy  and  power  to  transmit  this  energy  into 
lofty  expression.  Pain  and  sorrow  are  thus 
to  be  welcomed  rather  than  feared.  They  are 
the  processes  of  initiation  to  the  more  perfect 
life  that  is  only  attained  through  struggle  and 
through  faith. 

Apart,  however,  from  these  more  excep- 
tional relations  of  spirit  to  spirit  —  from  that 
order  of  friendship  which  is  a  sacramental 
gift  —  are  the  incidental  contacts  of  life,  all 
of  which  hold  their  potential  influence  in  un- 
measured degree.  To  live  in  the  "  Heaven  of 
Spirit "  is  so  to  radiate  beauty,  sweetness,  and 
joy  that  each  one  becomes  a  gift  and  a  bene- 
diction to  others.  Nothing  less  than  the 
140 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


realization  of  this  ideal  can  create  that  atmos- 
phere which  is  the  "  Heaven  of  Spirit."  It  is 
open  to  each  and  all  from  the  crudest  and 
the  humblest  to  the  most  lofty  and  powerful. 
It  is  the  privilege  of  the  peasant  as  well  as 
of  the  prince  and  the  potentate. 

In  the  vast  panorama  of  human  relation- 
ships  we    are    always    fulfilling    or  denying 
prayers  and  demands.     "Each  or- 
der of  things  has  its  angel:  that 


means  the   full   message   of  each  dawiL  on 

any  Hour. 

from  what  is  afar."     All  meeting 
and   mingling  is   not   for  pleasure,  or  even, 
apparently,    for    mutual    advantage.      Often 
these    relationships    seem    fateful    ones    for 
disaster  and   sorrow. 

"  He  has  mistaken  the  first  idea  of  human 
companionship  who  seeks  friendships  and  con- 
tacts with  mankind  directly  and  simply  for 
the  pleasure  they  will  give  him,"  well  said 
Phillips  Brooks.  This  companionship  of  spirit 
not  uufrequently  generates  pain  and  sorrow 
141 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


and  sacrifice ;  but  the  sacrifice  is  richer  than 
all  treasure.  Thus,  too,  all  sacrifice,  all  com- 
munion of  social  relations,  transcends  the 
meeting  in  the  physical  world,  and  bridges 
that  gulf  we  call  death.  Friendship  survives 
the  bodily  separation.  Spirit  to  spirit  it  re- 
sponds from  the  Seen  to  the  Unseen.  The 
final  test  and  witness  of  all  true  friendship,  as 
well  as  of  all  spiritual  power,  is  seen  "  in  the 
ability  to  cast  the  bodily  life  away,  and  yet 
continue  to  give  help  and  courage  and  wis- 
dom to  those  who  see  us  no  longer;  to  be, 
like  Christ,  the  helper  of  men's  souls  even 
from  beyond  the  grave."  The  atmosphere  in 
which  we  live  is  filled  with  friends  and  com- 
panions and  helpers  whom  we  cannot  see. 
The  psychic  body  is  at  a  rate  of  vibration  so 
much  higher  than  the  physical  eye  can  recog- 
nize that  it  is  thereby  unseen,  though  not, 
indeed,  unperceived.  For  there  are  more 
subtile  senses  than  the  eye  and  the  ear,  and 
these  take  finer  cognizance.  By  the  cloud 
142 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


of  witnesses  are  we  companioned.  To  them 
can  we  turn  for  counsel,  for  guidance.  "  Are 
they  not  all  ministering  spirits  ?  "  Are  not 
they  —  and  we  —  God's  messengers,  His  co- 
workers  in  the  realm  of  spiritual  forces  ?  If 
we  are  not,  then  are  our  lives  very  remote 
from  what  they  should  be. 

This  intercommunion  between  those  in  the 
Seen  and  those  in  the  Unseen  is  a  spiritual 
law.  It  is  best  achieved  by  the  development 
of  one's  own  spiritual  power.  The  more 
subtile  senses  can  be  evolved  and  educated. 
The  entire  trend  of  conscious  life  may  be  so 
lived  on  the  higher  plane  that  the  communion 
with  those  in  the  diviner  world  is  the  natural, 
the  inevitable,  experience.  And  this  is  to 
dwell  in  joy  and  harmony  and  in  the  magnetic 
atmosphere  of  inspiration  and  suggestion.  It 
is  to  find  that  seeming  obstacles  are  in  reality 
channels  conducting  us  on  to  the  fairer  future. 
"  The  soul  is  ceaselessly  joyful ; "  and  in  pro- 
portion as  one  lives  the  life  of  the  soul,  —  in 
143 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


proportion  as  he  unites  his  spirit  with  the  divine 
spirit,  —  does  he  dwell  in  joy  and  radiance* 

"  Let  this  mind  be  in  you,  which  was  also 
in  Christ  Jesus,"  said  Saint  Paul ;  and  when 
he  so  exhorted  his  disciples  was  he  speaking 
extravagant  words,  idly,  or  did  the  exhorta- 
tion convey  to  them  a  beautiful  ideal  which 
might  become  a  practical  reality?  The  ear- 
nestness of  the  message  which  is  found  in  his 
Epistle  to  the  Philippians  argues  that  Paul 
himself  believed  he  was  entreating  their  ac- 
ceptance of  a  possibility.  "  Let  this  mind  be 
in  you,  which  was  also  in  Christ  Jesus ; "  and 
if  this  were  a  possibility  for  the  Philippians, 
nineteen  hundred  years  ago,  it  is  a  possibility 
for  the  Christian  world  to-day.  If  it  were 
a  realized  possibility,  the  general  life,  the 
universal  life,  would  be  entirely  transformed. 
For  mind  acts  upon  nature  and  circumstances. 
Thought  is  the  highest  degree  of  power,  and 
the  quality  and  intensity  of  the  thought  deter- 
mine outer  conditions. 

144 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


"  Whate'er  our  state  we  must  have  made  it  once," 
writes  Mrs.  Browning,  and  she  adds :  — 

"  And  though  the  state  displease  us,  aye,  displease  us 

warrantably, 

Never  doubt  that  other  states,  though  possible  once, 
And  then  rejected  by  the  instinct  of  our  lives, 
If  then  accepted,  had  displeased  us  more." 

S. 

Life  is  certainly  a  continuous  chain,  —  a 
series  of  sequences  in  which  we  are  what  we 
are  to-day  and  this  year  because  of  what  we 
were  yesterday  and  last  year. 

Our  deeds  still  travel  with  us  from  afar, 

And  what  we  have  been  makes  us  what  we  are." 

All  the  outer  circumstances  and  surround- 
ings, all  the  environment  and  the  attendant 
influences,  are  solely  due  to  the  mental  condi- 
tions that  have  prevailed  and  wrought  the  out- 
ward result.  "  Let  this  mind  be  in  you,  which 
was  also  in  Christ  Jesus."  So  far  as  that 
mind  reflected  the  transcendent  spiritual  qual- 
ities of  Jesus,  the  Christ,  so  far  has  it  im- 
parted exaltation  and  significance  to  life. 
10  145 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


So  far  as  it  departed  from  this  divine  quality, 
so  far  is  life  poor  and  meaningless.  The  law 
is  inevitable,  is  exact,  is  undeniable.  Then,  as 
mental  conditions  have  created  certain  states, 
a  change  in  mental  conditions  can  change 
these  states,  correspondingly.  "  Let  this  mind 
be  in  you,  which  was  also  in  Christ  Jesus." 

The  history  of  the  gospels  reveals  to  us 
that  the  mind  which  was  in  Christ  Jesus  did 
not  save  him  from  sacrifice.  It  did  not  in- 
sure him  that  which  the  modern  world  would 
call  prosperity,  by  which  is  always  meant  the 
conveniences  and  the  luxuries  of  material 
things,  and  not  riches  of  the  spirit.  Selfishness 
and  self-seeking  determine,  for  the  most  part, 
that  which  is  considered  fortunate.  It  is  an 
environment  composed  exclusively  of  temporal 
things,  —  things  which  are  transitory  in  their 
very  nature,  here  to-day  and  gone  to-morrow ; 
and  which,  while  their  uses  and  true  value 
are  not  to  be  ignored,  are  yet  an  integral  part 
of  the  temporary  and  vanishing  world  as  dis- 
146 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


tinct  from  the  eternal  and  the  immortal  realm. 
"  What  shall  it  profit  a  man,"  wisely  asks  the 
apostle,  "though  he  gain  the  whole  world 
and  lose  his  own  soul?"  If  he  gain  the 
world  —  this  spectacular,  vanishing  world  — 
by  the  sacrifice  of  all  his  higher  and.  nobler 
qualities ;  if  he  has  developed  greed  and  sel- 
fishness and  indifference  to  his  fellow-men 
rather  than  generosity  and  love ;  if,  on  quit- 
ting the  physical  life  to  which,  alone,  his 
material  possessions  bear  any  relation  and  in 
which,  alone,  they  are  of  any  value,  he 
finds  himself  with  deformities  of  soul,  with 
qualities  which  are  not  fitted  to  inherit  eter- 
nal life ;  which  are  not  adapted  to  enter  into 
the  joy  and  peace  and  exaltation  of  energy  in 
the  next  higher  stage  of  life,  —  what,  indeed, 
shall  his  brief  tenure  of  luxuries  in  the  tran- 
sient physical  conditions  have  profited  him  ? 

In  one  of  the  impressive  discourses  of  Phil- 
lips Brooks,  he  speaks  of  the  willing  surrender 
of  Jesus.     "  I  want  you  to  think  of  the  noble- 
147 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


ness  of  the  surrender  of  Jesus,"  said  Bishop 
Brooks,  "  and  of  the  way  in  which  no  man 
becomes  really  noble  who  has  not  somehow 
its  repetition  in  himself.  The  act  itself  which 
I  have  pictured  must  stir  any  generous  soul. 
Christ,  with  freedom  and  honor  waiting  at 
His  call,  quietly  shutting  His  lips  and  refus- 
ing to  call  them,  and  going  on  into  suffering 
and  shame,  —  that  is  one  of  the  scenes  which 
we  may  make  a  test-scene  of  human  charac- 
ter. The  man  who  calls  that  voluntary  self- 
surrender  foolish  shows  that  he  is  himself 
ignoble.  Everything  that  there  is  noble  in  a 
man's  nature  leaps  up  to  honor  it ;  and  every- 
where, where  the  mind  which  was  in  Christ 
Jesus  has  been  in  any  other  man,  that  other 
man's  brethren  have  felt  his  nobleness.  To 
give  up  some  precious  thing  which  is  legiti- 
mately yours ;  to  shut  your  eyes  upon  visions 
of  glory  or  safety  or  luxury  which  you  might 
make  your  own  without  a  shade  of  blame,  — 
[  that  is  so  truly  one  of  the  marks  of  nobleness 
148 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


that  no  man  is  accounted  by  the  best  stand- 
ards truly  noble  who  is  not  doing  that  in  some 
degree.  The  man  who  is  taking  all  that  he 
has  a  right  to  take  in  life  is  always  touched 
with  a  suspicion  and  a  shade  of  baseness. 
There  is  a  paradox  in  it,  no  doubt ;  one  of 
those  moral  paradoxes  which  make  the  world 
of  moral  study  always  fascinating.  Man  has  no 
right  to  take  his  full  rights  in  the  world ;  he 
is  not  wholly  noble  unless  he  sees  the  higher 
law  which  declares  that  all  is  not  his  to  take 
which  is  his  legitimately  to  own." 

Do  not  these  words  throw  into  brilliant 
illumination  the  quality  and  the  attitude  of 
"  the  mind  which  was  also  in  Christ  Jesus  "  ? 
There  is  always  possible  the  relinquishment 
rather  than  the  grasp ;  the  surrender  rather 
than  the  triumph ;  the  sacrifice  rather  than 
the  victory ;  and  beyond  these  is  the  marvel- 
lous truth  that  through  the  relinquishment, 
the  surrender,  and  the  sacrifice,  —  by  means 

of  these ;  by  means  of  the  mental  state,  the 
149 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


spiritual  insight,  by  which  those  are  made 
possible,  —  is  gained  the  permanent  triumph, 
the  true  victory,  the  immortal  achievement. 
One  surrenders  the  lower  to  gain  the  higher ; 
he  sacrifices  the  temporal  to  achieve  the 
permanent  and  the  immortal.  Again,  "  He 
ascended  into  heaven."  The  ordinary  concep- 
tion of  that  simple  and  sublime  assertion  has 
always  been  that  of  a  definite  event  following, 
and  made  possible  by,  the  physical  death  of 
Jesus.  But  a  higher  and  a  more  spiritual 
conception  of  the  great  significance  of  these 
words  reveals  that  the  ascension  into  heaven 
is  a  condition  rather  than  an  event ;  that  it  is 
the  possibility  of  any  hour,  of  any  day,  for 
man,  now  and  here ;  it  is  the  divine  possibil- 
ity to  so  achieve  that  exalted  condition  of  soul 
as  to  "  ascend  into  heaven ;  "  as  to  live  in  the 
heavenly  atmosphere.  To  rise  into  that  nobler 
state  where  the  mind  that  was  in  Christ  Jesus 
may  also  be  in  man  is  to  make  possible  the 
conditions  for  living  in  the  heavenly  atinos- 
150 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


phere.  "  Let  this  miiid  be  in  you,  which  was 
also  in  Christ  Jesus."  The  sublime  endeavor 
may  always  hold  its  increasing  measure  of 
divine  possibility  and  immortal  achievement. 

In  the  autumn  of  1904  Sir  Oliver  Lodge 
delivered  a  remarkable  address  on  "  Mind  and 
Matter  "  before  the  Birmingham  and  Midland 
Institute,  of  which  the  essence  is  to  be  found 
in  the  following  paragraph :  — 

"  Consider  our  own  position,  —  it  is  surely 
worth  considering.  We  are  a  part  of  this  planet ; 
on  one  side  certainly  and  distinctly  a  part  of  this 
material  world,  a  part  which  has  become  self- 
conscious.  At  first  we  were  a  part  which  had 
become  alive  ;  a  tremendous  step,  that  —  intro- 
ducing a  number  of  powers  and  privileges  which 
previously  had  been  impossible,  but  that  step  in- 
troduced no  responsibility ;  we  were  no  longer 
indeed  urged  by  mere  pressure  from  behind,  we 
were  guided  by  our  instincts  and  appetites,  but 
we  still  obeyed  the  strongest  external  motive,  al- 
most like  electro-magnetic  automata.  Now,  how- 
ever, we  have  become  conscious,  able  to  look 
151 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


before  and  after,  to  learn  consciously  from  the 
past,  to  strive  strenuously  towards  the  future;  we 
have  acquired  a  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  we 
can  choose  the  one  and  reject  the  other,  and  are 
thus  burdened  with  a  sense  of  responsibility  for 
our  acts.  We  still  obey  the  strongest  motive 
doubtless,  but  there  is  something  in  ourselves 
which  makes  it  a  motive  and  regulates  its  strength. 
We  can  drift  like  other  animals,  and  often  do ; 
but  we  can  also  obey  our  own  volition." 

The  theory  is  that  the  universe  is  divided 
into  the  two  qualities,  mind  and  matter ;  but 
that  matter  is,  potentially,  mind,  —  that  is, 
on  the  way  to  become  mind.  Again,  that  in 
each  of  these  two  general  divisions  there 
are  infinite  grades  and  shades.  As  Professor 
Lodge  himself  says :  — 

"  Moreover,  just  as  variety  of  matter  exists,  so 
it  is  not  unlikely  that  variety  of  spirit  exists ;  and 
that  a  Divine  Spirit,  though  transcendent,  is  also 
immanent  in  the  material  universe,  that  universe 
which  appeals  to  our  senses,  and  has  enkindled 
in  some  of  us  a  passionate  enthusiasm  for  the 
152 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


true,  the  beautiful,  and  the  good.  These  three 
great  attributes  excite  Professor  Haeckel's,  as 
they  excited  Goethe's,  worship  and  admiration ; 
the  three  goddesses  as  he  calls  them,  Truth, 
Goodness,  and  Beauty ;  but  there  is  no  neces- 
sary competition  or  antagonism  between  these 
and  the  other  three  great  conceptions  which 
aroused  the  veneration  of  the  philosopher  Kant : 
God,  Freedom,  and  Immortality ;  nor  does  the 
upholding  of  the  one  triad  mean  the  overthrow 
of  the  other ;  they  may  be  all  co-eternal  together 
and  co-equal ;  provided  that  by  the  term  God  in 
this  connection  is  meant,  as  usual,  something  lim- 
ited by  our  conceptions,  something  corresponding 
to  our  human  ideal  of  perfection,  some  personified 
aspect  or  higher  mode  of  being,  and  is  not  in- 
tended to  represent  the  sum-total  of  existence ; 
whereby,  of  course,  it  would  become  all-inclusive 
and  impossible  to  catalogue  with  anything  else. 
Nor  are  either  of  these  triplets  inconsistent  with 
some  reasonable  view  of  what  may  possibly  be 
meant  by  the  Christian  Trinity." 

Dr.   Lodge    conceives    human    life   on   so 
vast  a  scale  that  he  opens  new  gateways  of 
153 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


thought.  He  quotes  from  Haeckel's  "  Prob- 
lem of  Substance,"  and  points  out  that 
Haeckel  comprises  all  matter  and  energy 
under  the  general  term  "substance,"  which 
he  holds  to  be  the  sum  and  totality  of  all 
existence.  "  This  he  regards  as  the  deep 
reality,"  Dr.  Lodge  proceeds  to  say,  "  and  all 
else  as  appearance.  He  holds  that  matter 
and  energy  include  everything  that  is  real, 
and  that  life,  consciousness,  spirit,  joy,  free 
will,  etc.,  are  but  attributes  or  functions  or  de- 
velopments of  something  implicit  in  these  fun- 
damental things ;  that  these  things,  together 
with  their  attributes,  not  only  constitute  the 
universe  as  we  know  it,  but  that  they  also 
constitute  the  deity  —  all  the  deity  there  is." 

Now  Professor  Haeckel  goes  on  still  fur- 
ther into  the  universe.  He  sees  the  vast 
multitude  of  things  that  perish,  showing  that 
they  are  trivial  and  accidental.  A  flame  is  ex- 
tinguished and  dies ;  a  planet  or  a  sun  loses 
its  identity  by  collision  with  other  bodies. 
154 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


"  All  these  are  temporary  collocations  of 
atoms ;  but  it  appears  now  that  an  atom  may 
break  up  into  electric  charges,  and  these 
again  may  some  day  be  found  capable  of  re- 
solving themselves  into  pristine  ether.  If  so, 
then  these  also  are  temporary,  and  in  the 
material  universe  it  is  the  ether  only  which 
persists,  —  the  ether  with  such  states  of  mo- 
tion or  strain  as  it  eternally  possesses,  —  in 
which  case  the  ether  will  have  proved  itself 
the  material  substratum  and  most  fundamen- 
tal known  entity  on  that  side." 

This  brings  us  at  last  to  the  final  conclu- 
sion, the  ultimate  truth,  that  the  only  true 
and  abiding  reality  of  life  is  that  on  the 
ethereal  side.  It  is  the  ethereal  body  which 
is  the  substantial  body;  it  is  the  ethereal 
realm  in  which  the  real  life  is  lived.  Emer- 
son was  precisely  in  accord  with  this  theory 
when  he  said,  "  Thought  lets  us  into  reality." 
The  world  of  thought,  of  mind,  of  spirit,  is 
the  only  reality.  Matter  is  not  real,  but  only 
155 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


on  its  way  to  become  real.  Out  of  all  the 
life  lived  on  earth  the  individual  has  only  a 
small  residuum  of  reality  as  the  result  of  his 
entire  pilgrimage  through  the  world  of  matter. 
Only  that  part  which  is  refined  into  spiritual 
energy  continues  to  persist. 

But  how  wonderful  is  the  view  of  life  as 
presented  by  Sir  Oliver  Lodge.  First,  we  are 
a  part  of  the  planet ;  on  one  side  distinctly  a 
part  of  the  material  world,  a  part  which  has 
become  self-conscious.  At  first  we  were 
merely  alive ;  and  even  the  fact  of  becoming 
alive  introduced  numerous  powers  and  privi- 
leges hitherto  impossible,  but  these  powers 
and  privileges  entailed  no  responsibility.  We 
obeyed  merely  external  motive,  "  almost  like 
electro-magnetic  automata."  But  now,  hav- 
ing added  consciousness  to  mere  life ;  now 
being  able  to  look  before  us  and  behind  us; 
to  learn  from  the  past,  to  aspire  toward  the 
future, — now  that  having  acquired  a  knowl- 
edge of  good  and  evil  we  are  capable  of 
156 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


choosing  the  one  and  rejecting  the  other,  we 
thus  come  under  the  burden  of  responsibility. 
"  We  can  drift,"  says  Sir  Oliver,  "  and  we 
often  do;  but  we  can  also  obey  our  own 
volition."  Here  is  a  tremendous  fact  which 
confronts  us  as  an  epoch-making  moral  force, 
—  the  power  of  choice,  the  power  of  exer- 
cising our  individual  will.  With  this  power 
achieved,  man  has,  then,  advanced  from  the 
plane  of  mere  life  into  that  of  intelligent  and 
self-directing  consciousness  which  is  the  plane 
of  the  divine  life ;  though  as  "  variety  of 
spirit"  exists,  he  is,  of  course,  only  in  the 
cruder  and  the  elementary  stages  of  this 
divine  life.  But  its  advancement  rests  with 
himself;  its  ever  and  ever  higher  achieve- 
ment, pressing  on  to  the  things  that  are  be- 
fore, now  becomes  his  responsibility.  It  is  a 
marvellously  inspiring  view  of  human  life  and 
its  divine  destiny. 

Modern  science  is,  indeed,  throwing  high 
illumination  on  the  entire  mystery  of  being 
157 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


which  includes  the  mystery  of  death.  In  his 
important  work  on  "  zEther  and  Gravitation," 
Dr.  William  George  Hooper,  F.S.S.,  thus 
speaks  of  the  new  glimpse  into  the  nature 
of  the  ethereal  world  which  constitutes  the 
condition  of  existence  in  the  next  stage  after 
the  physical  world.  "  May  not,  then,"  he  says, 
"the  thing  of  an  atomic,  universal,  electro- 
magnetic medium  help  us  on  in  our  groping 
and  searching  after  light  in  this  direction? 
Who  will  uplift  the  veil  ?  Already  we  peer  into 
the  spirit-world.  A  little  more  light,  a  little 
more  truth,  and  then  there  will  burst  forth 
upon  the  hearts  and  minds  of  men  the  grand- 
est and  most  glorious  truth  that  Nature  can 
reveal  of  her  Creator,  and  then  men  shall 
come  to  know  and  understand  the  place  that 
God  holds  in  the  Universe,  such  truth  being 
advanced  on  its  way  by  an  atomic,  universal 
magnetic  aether  which  is  as  truly  matter  as 
our  own  bodies.  .  .  .  All  things  derive  their 
existence  primarily  with  all  the  energies  and 
158 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


powers  they  possess,  from  God.  .  .  .  Thus 
behind  and  beyond  all  we  see,  in  every  living 
form,  there  is  the  evidence  of  a  hidden  spirit, 
which  is  the  governing  and  controlling  and 
sustaining  power,  and  without  which  the  or- 
ganism ceases  to  be  an  organism,  —  a  spirit 
that  animates  this  mechanism,  and  uses  its 
activities  and  powers  as  it  wills  for  its  own 
purposes  and  ends.  This  spirit  or  power  we 
call  its  life,  which  gives  to  the  form  its  exist- 
ence, together  with  all  that  it  possesses,  as  its 
powers,  activities,  energies  and  productions, 
for  all  are  but  the  effects  of  the  hidden  life." 
If  this  mysterious  something,  termed  its  life, 
becomes  in  any  way  separated  from  the  mech- 
anism or  organism,  then  a  distinct  and  sep- 
arate organism  it  ceases  to  be.  The  spiritual 
spectroscope  is  thus  being  turned  by  scientists 
on  the  problems  of  existence.  Science  is 
penetrating  beyond  that  horizon  line  com- 
monly held  to  limit  this  period  of  life  on 
earth  and  divide  it  from  the  succeeding  period 
159 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


which  was  invested  in  vague  mystery.  As 
knowledge  advances,  the  horizon  line  is  ex- 
tended. That  which  was  the  limit  beyond 
which  the  mind  could  not  penetrate  becomes 
the  starting-point  of  a  new  quest.  Some 
years  ago  Professor  Dolbear  wrote :  "  The 
properties  of  the  ether,  and  their  relation  to 
such  physical  phenomena  as  have  been  the 
subjects  of  research,  are  so  little  known  that 
no  one  has  ventured  to  embody  them  in  an 
all-embracing  philosophy  so  as  to  deduce  ap- 
parent phenomena  from  them."  Since  that 
time  the  progress  in  ethereal  physics  has  been 
so  marked  that  it  may  be  reasonably  believed 
the  key  which  will  unlock  many,  if  not  all, 
the  problems  of  physical  science  will  be  found 
therein.  All  the  phenomena  of  light,  heat, 
electricity,  and  magnetism  have  their  origin 
in  the  universal  ether.  "Each  discovery  of 
science,"  says  Dr.  Hooper,  "  has  only  strength- 
ened the  hypothesis  and  existence  of  the 
aether,  the  latest  discovery,  that  of  wireless 
160 


TJte  Outlook  Beautiful. 


telegraphy  so  successfully  developed  by  Signer 
Marconi,  being  attributed  to  the  electro-mag- 
netic properties  of  this  self-same  aether." 
Professor  Young  asserts,  "A  Luminiferous 
aether  pervades  the  Universe,  rare  and  elastic 
in  a  high  degree,"  and  he  points  out  that  this 
sether  "  fills  all  space  and  floods  the  universe 
at  large.  In  it  suns  blaze,  stars  shine,  worlds 
and  planets  roll,  meteors  flash,  and  comets 
rush  in  their  mysterious  flight.  In  it  all  ma- 
terial and  physical  things  exist,  for  it  is  to 
them  not  only  the  primary  meaning  of  their 
existence,  but,  just  as  the  infinite  and  ever- 
active  energy  of  the  Divine  is  to  the  universe 
in  its  entirety  and  fulness  the  exciting  and 
stimulating  spirit  of  its  energies  and  powers, 
and  without  which,  though  all  material  and 
physical  things  were  endowed  with  the  varied 
capacities  of  their  kind,  or  life,  yet  they  could 
neither  exert  nor  exercise  them  nor  even  ex- 
hibit the  simple  activity  of  motion.  Hence 
everywhere,  where  material  and  physical  things 
ll  161 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


are,  there,  as  the  medium  of  their  existence  or 
energy,  the  aether  is ;  and  where  the  aether  is 
not,  no  material  or  physical  thing  is,  or  can 
be.  That  the  aether  is  universal  is  proved  by 
the  phenomena  of  light."  Now,  as  light  has 
a  velocity  of  186,000  miles  a  second,  and  as 
there  are  some  stars  so  remote  that  the  as- 
tronomers assert  that  it  would  take  light  from 
them,  several  thousand  years  to  reach  the  earth, 
"  this  fact  alone,"  says  Dr.  Hooper,  "  implies 
that  throughout  boundless  space  there  is  to 
be  found  this  sethereal  medium.  Thus  inter- 
planetary and  inter-stellar  space  is  not  empty 
but  is  filled  with  this  ever-present,  all-pervad- 
ing aether :  and  not  only  so,  but  every  particle 
of  matter  in  the  universe  is  surrounded  by 
this  universal  aether  which  forms  the  exciting 
and  stimulating  mediums  of  all  the  activities, 
energies  and  motions  of  all  matter." 

From  this  ethereal  energy  shall  the  power 
of  the  Future  be  derived.     The  poet's  insight 
discerns  a  scientific  fact  when  he  writes :  — 
162 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


"In  the  years  that  shall  "be  ye  shall  harness  the 

Powers  of  the  ether, 
And  drive  them  with  reins  as  a  steed, 
Ye  shall  ride  on  a  Power  of  the  air,  on  a  Force  that 

is  bridled, 

On  a  saddled  Element  leap. 
And  rays  shall  be  as  your  coursers,  and  heat  as  a 

carriage, 

And  waves  of  the  ether  your  wheels. 
And  the  thunder  shall  be  as  a  servant  —  a  slave  that 

is  ready, 
And  the  lightning  as  he  that  waits." 

The  poet  predicts  that  we  shall  even  "  send 
the  tempest  on  errands  ; "  and  what  a  "  long 
distance  telephone"  prospect  is  suggested  in 
these  lines :  — 

"In  that  day  shall  a  man  out  of  uttermost  India 

whisper, 
And  in  England  his  friend  shall  hear." 

Still  further  the  poet  leads  us  along :  — 

"And  a  maiden  in  English  sunshine  have  sight  of  her 

lover, 

And  he  behold  her  from  Cathay. 
And  the  dead  whom  ye  loved  ye  shall  walk  with 

and  speak  with  the  lost : 
The  delusion  of  death  shall  pass. 
163 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


The  delusion  of  mounded  earth,  the  apparent  with- 
drawal ; 

Ye  shall  shed  your  bodies  and  upward  flutter  to 
freedom." 

Already  has  man  "harnessed  the  Powers 
of  the  ether."  We  travel  by  that  subtile  force 
of  electricity.  We  are  lighted  and  warmed, 
we  supply  motor-power  to  a  myriad  enter- 
prises, by  this  unseen  force.  The  day  is  not 
remote  when  air-cars  shall  traverse  the  air 
and  when  almost  literally  shall  be  experienced 
the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy,  — 

"  Ye  shall  ride  on  a  Power  of  the  air,  on  a  Force  that 

is  bridled, 
On  a  saddled  Element  leap." 

For,  as  Archdeacon  Wilberforce  has  said, 
"  All  actions  have  their  origin  in  mind."  All 
inventions  are  simply  the  result  of  mental 
vision.  All  experiences  are  within  the  choice 
and  the  determination  of  the  spiritual  man, 
—  of  his  higher  self,  which  is  dwelling  in  the 
ethereal  realm  even  while  by  his  denser  body 
he  is  still  tethered  to  the  physical  world. 
164 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


One  may,  indeed,  almost  absolutely  determine 
a  day  before  it  begins.  All  its  wants  and  its 
groupings  of  people  and  incidents  will  be 
colored  and  controlled  by  the  quality  of 
thought  brought  to  bear  upon  the  panorama, 
and  the  degree  of  refinement  and  elevation  of 
thought  depends,  first  of  all,  upon  prayer,  and 
largely  on  the  quality  of  reading  and  general 
interests.  "Every  man,"  says  Dr.  Wilber- 
force,  "capable  of  recognizing  the  paralyzing 
power  of  flesh  over  spirit,  the  numbing  influ- 
ence of  habits  formed  in  the  normal  tenor  of 
human  life,  will  acknowledge  the  value  of  a 
recurring  authoritative  appeal  to  the  heart  and 
conscience,  which  invigorates  the  will,  purifies 
the  aspirations,  and  elevates  the  aim  and 
scope  of  life." 

The  culture  of  thought,  although  more 
important  than  any  other  form  of  knowledge, 
is  far  less  regarded.  The  musician  gives  many 
hours  a  day  to  his  practice ;  the  linguist,  the 
scientist,  the  historian,  the  specialist  in  any 
165 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


line,  to  his  studies;  but  the  regular  daily 
reading  of  the  divine  Word,  the  daily  seasons 
for  prayer,  are  too  often  regarded  as  some- 
thing a  little  apart  from  ordinary  intellectual 
life;  as  the  specialties  of  the  priest,  the 
brotherhoods,  rather  than  the  most  absolute 
necessity  for  practical  progress.  The  energy 
by  which  all  work  is  achieved  is  gained  from 
close  receptivity  to  the  divine  life.  When 
Saint  Paul  said,  "  I  can  do  all  things  through 
Christ  which  strengtheneth  me,"  he  stated  a 
literal  truth ;  and  in  proportion  as  one  draws 
near  to  Jesus  and  partakes  of  the  Infinite 
Energy,  can  he  fulfil  his  purposes.  Thus  only 
does  he  gain  that  poise,  that  serene  harmony, 
which  shapes  endeavor  to  fulfilment. 

Rev.  Dr.  Charles  Gordon  Ames  has  said  that 
the  only  rescue  from  the  engulfing  quicksands 
of  doubt  and  despair  is  to  share  the  life  of  God 
and  to  know  that  we  share  it. 

The  life  of  God  is  love,  but  love  in  that 
great  significance  of  the  term  that  implies  in- 
166 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


tense  energy  devoted  to  the  highest  and  most 
unselfish  purposes.  One  shares  the  life  of 
God,  not  only  when  kneeling  at  the  altar  in 
the  consecration  of  mystic  communion  with 
Christ ;  not  only  in  the  solitude  of  his  personal 
devotions;  not  only  when  he  is  specifically 
engaged  in  aid  to  those  in  need  ;  but  he  shares 
it  when  he  is  proceeding  with  his  daily  work 
with  energy  and  persistence ;  when  he  is  meet- 
ing obstacle  and  trial  with  patience  and  cour- 
age ;  when  he  brings  sweetness  of  spirit,  and 
generous  purpose,  and  sympathetic  recognition 
to  all  with  whom  he  comes  in  contact  in  the 
day's  work;  when  he  so  governs  the  quality 
of  his  own  life  as  to  radiate  serenity  and 
courage  and  the  power  to  persist  in  an  high 
endeavor.  "To  live  in  the  world  as  a  well- 
ordered  home  means  business,"  says  Dr.  Ames, 
and  adds;  "It  means  wakeful  intelligence, 
applied  power,  invention,  industry,  economy, 
self-control,  good-will,  and  co-operation."  All 
this  is  a  part  of  the  living  with  God. 
167 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


The  consciousness  of  this  supreme  fact,  this 
marvellous  and  sublime  possibility  of  sharing 
the  life  of  God,  imparts  the  miracle-power  to 
life.  Doubt  is  paralyzing;  it  is  the  way  of 
death.  Faith,  belief,  conviction,  are  vitalizing 
and  are  the  way  of  life.  The  tendency  to  de- 
pression —  one  that  is  so  apt  to  visit  a  sen- 
sitive nature  not  sufficiently  identified  with 
the  life  of  God  to  counteract  this  tendency  — 
should  be  resisted  as  vigorously  as  any  form 
of  positive  vice.  It  is  the  destructive  force. 
Faith  is  constructive,  and  creates  even  that 
in  which  it  believes.  The  future  is  always 
moulded  out  of  the  inner  thought  and  convic- 
tions. It  is  created  by  the  power  of  thought 
brought  to  bear  on  it,  and  according  to  the 
quality  of  this  thought  is  it  made  noble  or 
ignoble.  Let  one  lift  up  his  heart.  Let  him 
realize  that  it  rests  within  his  own  choice  to 
be  a  partaker  of  the  divine  life.  Let  him  real- 
ize that  as  a  partaker  in  that  life  he  shares 
in  the  invincibleness  of  spirit.  The  affirma- 
168 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


tion,  "  I  can  do  all  things  through  Christ  which 
strengthened  me,"  is  as  unalterably  true  as 
are  the  processes  of  the  multiplication  table. 
Life  is,  indeed,  as  Dr.  Ames  well  says,  a  divine 
manifestation,  and  thus  it  is  full  of  glory,  of 
power,  of  infinite  energy  and  exaltation.  In 
these  mental  conditions  every  day  has  its  high 
results,  every  hour  its  definite  achievement, 
helping  to  confirm  us  in  the  possession  and  the 
enjoyment  of  all  that  is  best  in  us.  "  To  share 
the  life  of  God  and  to  know  that  we  share  it," 
—  to  be  thus  "  placed  beyond  doubt,"-  — is  to 
live,  here  and  now,  the  life  of  Immortality. 

In  "the  Heaven  of  Spirit"  in  which  man 
may  constantly  and  immediately  live,  there  are 
complications  of  law  which  present  more  intri- 
cate problems  than  those  in  the  realm  of 
physics.  Action  and  reaction  are  not  im- 
mediate,—  on  the  spiritual  plane.  On  this 
plane  out  of  the  profoundest  sorrow  springs 
joy ;  out  of  the  saddest  defeat  arises  triumph  ; 
out  of  the  most  complete  loss  one  acquires 
169 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


his  most  transcendent  riches.  It  is  worth 
while  —  it  is  absolutely  worth  while  —  to  go 
through  torture  and  tears  and  tragedy  for 
the  spiritual  riches  one  finds  therein.  It 
is  literally  true,  it  is  abundantly  true,  that 
while  "no  chastening  for  the  present  seem- 
eth  joyous,  but  grievous,"  it  yet  does  "yield 
the  peaceable  fruit  of  righteousness."  It 
does  transmute  itself  into  a  larger  view  of 
life,  into  a  wider  tolerance,  a  finer  insight, 
and  into  more  generous  and  vital  sympathies. 
One  lets  go  all  else,  but  one  finds  —  the  divine 
aid,  the  divine  love,  that,  closer,  stronger, 
than  ever  before,  shall  encompass  him  round 
about.  He  finds  the  consciousness  of  a  new 
spiritual  energy,  of  an  experience  that  is, 
literally,  that  of  "a  closer  walk  with  God." 
He  is  living  in  an  absolutely  new  atmosphere. 
Then,  too,  one  gains  the  strength  of  that 
which  he  has  overcome.  He  gains  this  more 
extended  horizon.  He  is  not  blinded  by  the 
seeming  injustice  meted  out  to  him,  nor  is  he 
170 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


receiving  it  with  any  antagonism.  On  the 
contrary,  he  looks  beyond.  He  realizes  how 
complicated  a  thing  is  human  nature ;  how 
the  possibilities  of  evil  and  of  good  are  held 
in  the  balance,  and  that  his  own  annoyance 
or  sorrow  is  not  the  question ;  but  that  the 
one  great  purpose  of  all  these  mingled  expe- 
riences is  that  of  mutual  aid,  mutual  forgive- 
ness, mutual  encouragement  unto  the  onward 
way.  As  Phillips  Brooks  has  said,  our  judg- 
ments of  others,  or  their  judgments  of  us,  are 
of  small  account.  But  "  the  truth  that  issues 
in  duty,  and  the  duty  that  comes  by  truth," 
—  there  is  the  standard  by  which  to  test  all 
ideals  of  conduct.  To  accept  censure  for 
faults  not  committed ;  to  try  to  do  well  and 
yet  suffer  for  it,  —  this,  says  Saint  Peter,  "  is 
good  and  acceptable  unto  God."  This  state- 
ment is  one  of  the  profoundest  truth.  Accept 
even  injustice  and  evil,  if  they  come,  as  from 
God.  Learn  the  lesson  they  suggest  Incor- 
porate it  into  that  higher  life  of  the  spirit,  and 
171 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


thus  overcome  them  forever.  "  The  meaning 
of  life,  of  its  happiness  and  its  sorrows,  of  its 
successes  and  its  disappointments,  is  this," 
says  Bishop  Brooks :  "  that  man  must  be 
fastened  close  to  God  and  live  by  the  divine 
life  not  his  own,  by  the  divine  life  made  his 
own  through  the  close  binding  of  the  two 
together  by  faith  and  love." 

To  live  by  faith  and  love !  In  these  alone 
lies  our  human  destiny,  which  is  our  divine 
destiny.  Our  true  life  is  the  accomplishment 
of  a  divine  service.  "We  can  do  our  hum- 
blest tasks  not  as  drudges,  but  as  fellow- 
workers  with  saints  and  heroes." 

And  the  life  of  saints  and  heroes  is  not  to 
be  regarded  in  the  light  of  the  phenomenal, 
the  exceptional,  —  a  life  which  could  only  be 
a  possibility  in  some  dim,  mediaeval  age,  but 
which  bears  no  relation  to  the  modern  world 
with  its  intense  activities.  The  quality  of  life 
that  makes  the  saint  and  the  hero;  the  pa- 
tience, serenity,  sweetness,  faith,  and  courage 
172 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


that  make  saints  and  heroes,  —  are  qualities 
common  to  all,  and  they  are  the  qualities  to 
be  developed  and  practised  in  the  daily  round 
of  pursuits.  It  is  not  necessary  to  retire  into 
the  cloister  in  order  to  be  a  saint.  "Wall 
Street  has  tests  for  the  Christian  life  un- 
dreamed of  in  convent  or  monastery.  "  Sup- 
pose that  the  routine  of  life  is  perceived  to 
be  the  essential  machinery  which  harnesses 
spiritual  power.  ...  So  we  are  brought, 
then,  by  those  co-relations  of  knowledge  and 
service  toward  the  new  idealism  which  holds 
the  scholar  and  the  hand-worker  in  the  unity 
of  the  new  world." 

The  phase  of  life  on  earth  has  but  one 
single  purpose,  —  that  of  the  development  and 
culture  of  the  spiritual  powers.  Man  is  here, 
not  to  acquire  great  possessions,  not  to  live 
at  ease  and  revel  in  luxuries,  or  even  in  aes- 
thetic and  artistic  beauty,  save  so  far  as  it 
ministers  to  the  higher  life ;  nor  is  all  the  vast 
and  complicated  mechanism  of  civilization  any 
173 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


more,  in  true  relation  to  the  divine  plan,  than 
a  drama  of  development.  A  great  railroad  is 
extended  across  a  continent,  but  its  signifi- 
cance lies  in  the  new  opportunities  for  life 
that  it  provides.  If  it  invite  men  into  the 
wilderness  to  wrestle  with  the  primeval  forces 
of  nature,  the  permanent  significance  is  to  be 
traced  in  the  qualities  of  mind  and  heart  that 
are  developed,  —  the  courage,  persistence  of 
purpose,  the  patience,  the  sympathy  with  all 
who  share  the  common  lot,  rather  than  the 
results  of  harvests,  or  mines,  or  material  pros- 
perity in  any  form.  These  are  the  transient 
results,  but  the  achievement  of  high  qualities 
is  the  permanent  result.  There  is  a  striking 
antithesis  running  all  through  the  Scriptures 
which  continually  contrasts  the  gaining  of  the 
world  and  the  losing  of  one's  soul.  As  if 
there  were,  indeed,  these  two  possibilities  set 
before  man,  either  one  of  which  he  may  choose, 
but  each  of  which  is  incompatible  with  the 
other.  "What  shall  it  profit  a  man,"  runs 
174 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


the  searching  inquiry,  "  if  he  gain  the  whole 
world  and  lose  his  own  soul  ?  "  A  finer  ap- 
prehension of  spiritual  truth  reveals  to  modern 
life  that  the  possessions  typically  known  as 
"  the  world  "  are  not,  in  themselves,  neces- 
sarily inimical  to  the  higher  life  if  they  are 
held  as  means  to  an  end,  and  that  end  one  of 
tenderness,  consideration,  and  love  to  others. 
The  "  gaining  the  world "  and  "  losing  the 
soul"  are  each  expressions  signifying  certain 
spiritual  conditions.  It  is  not  "the  world" 
that  is  the  point  of  objection,  but  the  use  made 
of  it.  Saint  Paul  affirms  that  he  had  learned 
how  to  abound  as  well  as  how  to  be  abased. 
The  divine  command  is  to  "love  not  the 
world,  neither  the  things  that  are  in  the 
world  "  —  not  for  and  of  themselves.  That 
way  lies  the  pauperized  soul.  But  take  them 
for  their  use,  redeem  them  to  the  service  of 
humanity,  and  the  things  of  the  world  are 
thus  transmuted  into  heavenly  treasure./  The 
alchemy  that  changes  all  phases  of  experience 
175 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


into  spiritual  riches  is  the  realization  of  the 
mysterious  power  of  Jesus.  He  was  the  mani- 
festation of  the  divine  life.  "  God,  with  His 
power  and  love,  was,  so  to  speak,  humanly 
manifest  in  Jesus,"  says  Phillips  Brooks. 
"That  human  form,  walking  with  self- wit- 
nessing evidence  of  divinity  there  among  men, 
was  not  merely  the  declaration  of  God's  love 
and  power  ;  it  was  God's  love  and  power  ac- 
tually here."  To  realize  this  power  in  the 
most  intimate  and  profound  sense  is  to  share 
it  —  is  to  enter  into  its  transcendent  power 
and  glory.  If  this  realization  is  gained  through 
joy,  or  through  sorrow,  by  means  of  ease  and 
prosperity,  or  by  hardship  and  privation,  what 
matters  it,  if  the  supreme  result  be  attained? 

'And  so  one  comes  back  to  the  truth  that 
I 

seasons  of  trial  are  not,  necessarily,  seasons 
of  misfortune.  They  are  tests.  They  reveal 
to  just  what  degree  spiritual  power  has  been 
achieved.  They  adjust  the  balance  of  char- 
acter and  throw  the  illumination  of  radium 
176 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


light  on  all  that  is  false  and  trivial  and  un- 
real, and  on  all  that  is  exalted  to  the  heavenly 
qualities  of  patience,  and  tenderness,  and  faith, 
and  love.  The  seasons  of  trial  are  those  of  a 
peculiarly  close  relation  to  the  Divine  compas- 
sion and  guidance,  and  one  single  moment  of 
intense  realization  of  this  close  and  intimate 
sympathy  of  the  Divine  Love  has  its  infinite 
power  over  a  lifetime,  over  a  thousand  life- 
times. It  is  the  power  for  all  the  eternities. 
The  scientist  tells  us  that  a  half-pound  of 
radium  would  keep  a  room  warm,  —  not 
merely  for  one  lifetime,  but  for  hundreds  of 
generations.  The  time  will  undoubtedly  come 
—  bold  as  the  speculation  may  seem  —  when 
one  may  carry  around  with  him,  by  a  few 
grains  of  radium,  his  own  light  and  his  own 
heat.  This  may,  indeed,  solve  the  problem 
of  Arctic  exploration,  enabling  the  intrepid 
explorer  to  carry  with  him  his  means  of  com- 
fortable temperature,  and  his  ineffably  bril- 
liant light  to  illumine  the  long  Arctic  night. 
12  177 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


Why  not?  The  Twentieth  century  is  on 
the  eve  of  great  things. 

The  perfect  recognition,  the  entering  into 
the  realization  of  the  Divine  Love,  is,  to  the 
soul,  what  the  possession  of  the  unspeakably 
brilliant  illumination  and  warmth  of  radium 
is  to  the  processes  of  life. 

"  Thought  is  the  wages 
For  which  I  sell  days." 

The  entering  into  the  Divine  Love,  the  reali- 
zation of  what  is  meant  by  the  divine  life, 
may  be  the  work  of  a  moment,  and  it  may 
polarize  the  soul  for  all  the  eternities  in  an 
unchanging  allegiance  and  sublime  receptivity 
to  the  Holy  Spirit.  If  a  season  of  peculiar 
trial  shall  give  this,  shall  it  not,  indeed,  be 
welcomed,  and  shall  not  all  who  share  in  it 
thank  God  for  the  experience  through  which 
His  hand  leads  them,  and  which  is  propheti- 
cally encompassed  round  about  by  the  legions 
of  angels?  And  ever  and  ever  is  it  true 
that 

178 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


"  We  tread  the  Wilderness  to-day, 
The  Promised  Land  to-morrow." 

Only  by  means  of  the  long  road  through  the 
Wilderness  is  the  pilgrim  led  onward  to  the 
Promised  Land! 

The  perpetual  phenomena  of  life  furnish 
all  the  material  for  spiritual  culture.  There 
is  not  a  day  but  makes  its  demands  on  one 
for  his  highest  and  sublimest  qualities.  There 
is  not  a  day  whose  experiences  do  not  test 
the  most  exalted  ideals.  The  working  energy 
of  life  is  to  hold  the  faith  of  its  increasing 
beauty  and  power;  the  faith  that  the  glory 
and  the  freshness  of  its  dreams  do  not 

"  fade  away 

Into  the  light  of  common  day," 

but  rather  merge  themselves  in  a  more  re- 
splendent illumination.  Noble  and  beautiful 
experiences  are  not  gone  when  they  have 
passed  by.  All  that  is  best  in  them  lives  in 

/   the  immediate  present. /The  beautiful  past 

/  foretells  a  beautiful  future. 
179 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


"  Who  thinks  at  midnight  morn  will  ever  dawn  ? 
Who  knows,  far  out  at  sea,  that  anywhere  is  land  1 
And  yet,  a  shore 
Hath  set  behind  us,  and  will  rise  before." 

All  that  is  sweetest  and  most  exalted  has 
in  itself  immortality. 

The  entire  panorama  of  infinite  nature  is 
an  Outlook  Beautiful.  The  "delusion  of 
death  "  shall  pass.  When  Puvis  de  Chavannes 
died,  a  French  writer  thus  opened  his  com- 
memorative tribute  :  "  A  great  light  has  gone 
out,  a  mighty  force  is  withdrawn  into  the 
gloom."  When  one  reflects  upon  such  words 
as  these  how  remote  do  they  seem  from  the 
atmosphere  of  a  Christian  world.  What  den- 
sity of  ignorance  and  darkness  to  speak  of 
passing  on  into  the  life  more  abundant  as  a 
"  withdrawal  into  gloom."  But  the  light  is 
dawning.  "  What,  I  ask  in  the  name  of  God, 
could  so  powerfully  affect  these  springs  of 
action,  and  influence  the  ethical  side  of  man, 
as  a  clear,  intelligent  conviction  of  the  unal- 
180 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


terable  purpose,  the  limitless  resources,  the 
universal  activity,  the  thrilling  nearness  of  the 
Word,  or  Eternal  Reason  of  God  in  all  ?  "  ex- 
claimed Archdeacon  Wilberforce.  "  To  be- 
lieve it,  even  a  little,  is  to  live  hopefully, 
fraternally,  humanely  ;  it  is  to  be  liberated 
from  the  gloomy  conception  of  a  far-off  Deity, 
of  whose  locality  you  are  uncertain,  and  of 
the  rectitude  of  whose  purpose  you  cannot  be 
sure ;  it  is  to  feel  all  the  ages  linked  together, 
to  recognize  humanity  as  the  body  of  God,  to 
be  set  free  from  the  half-expressed  phantom 
of  the  stigma  upon  the  Almighty  of  having 
left  a  world  alone  in  darkness  till  some  two 
thousand  years  ago." 

Surely,  God  has  not  left  the  world  in  dark- 
ness. He  sent  His  Son  with  the  message  of 
everlasting  life.  He  is  guiding  and  directing 
the  advance  of  science  and  of  psychic  research 
and  of  ethics,  by  means  of  which  humanity 
is  daily  approaching  an  increasingly  clearer 
grasp  of  the  divine  laws.  The  one  important 
181 


The  Outlook  Beautiful. 


thing  for  man  is  to  realize  his  true  relation  in 
the  spiritual  universe,  and  to  fulfil  these  rela- 
tions. Only  thus  does  man  fulfil  the  pur- 
pose of  his  life.  Yet,  as  Professor  Josiah 
Royce  so  ably  says:  "Never  in  the  present 
life  do  we  find  the  Self  as  a  given  and  real- 
ized fact.  It  is  for  us  an  ideal.  Its  true 
place  is  in  the  eternal  world  where  all  plans 
are  fulfilled.  In  God  alone  do  we  fully  come 
to  ourselves.  There  alone  do  we  know  even 
as  we  are  known." 

In  this  life  of  ours  here  and  now,  any  mo- 
ment may  be  a  miracle  moment.  Every  hour 
is  the  hour  of  God.  At  any  instant  the  glory 
that  shone  around  the  shepherds  on  the  Judean 
plain  may  transfigure  our  pathway  and  unite 
our  souls  more  closely  to  Him  in  whom  alone 
is  Eternal  Life. 


182 


Cbe  QJorld  Beautiful 

BY   LILIAN   WHITING 


I  know  of  no  volumes  of  sermons  published  in  recent  years  which 
are  so  well  fitted  to  uplift  the  reader,  and  inspire  all  that  is  finest  and 
best  in  his  nature,  as  are  the  series  of  essays  entitled  ' '  The  World 
Beautiful,"  by  Lilian  Whiting.  — B.  O.  FLOWER,  in  The  Coming  Age. 


Cbe  Cdorld  Beautiful  (first  Series) 

i6mo.      Cloth,  $1.00.     Decorated  cloth,  $1.25. 
Comprising  :  THE  WORLD  BEAUTIFUL  ;  FRIENDSHIP  j 
OUR    SOCIAL   SALVATION  }    LOTUS    EATING  j    THAT 
WHICH  is  TO  COME. 

The  world  beautiful  about  which  she  writes  is  no  far-off  event  to 
•which  all  things  move,  but  the  every-day  scene  around  us  filled  by  a 
spirit  which  elevates  and  transforms  it.  —  PROF.  Louis  J.  BLOCK,  in 
The  Philosophical  Journal. 

No  one  can  read  it  without  feeling  himself  the  better  and  richer 
and  happier  for  having  done  so.  —  The  Independent. 

Cbe  Cdorld  Beautiful  (Second  Series) 

i6mo.      Cloth,  $1.00.      Decorated  cloth,  $1.25. 
Comprising :  THE   WORLD    BEAUTIFUL  ;  OUR   BEST 
SOCIETY  ;    To   CLASP    ETERNAL    BEAUTY  ;   VIBRA- 
TIONS ;   THE  UNSEEN  WORLD. 

The  style  is  at  once  graceful  and  lively.  Every  touch  is  fresh.  — 
Zion's  Herald. 

Cbe  Olorld  Beautiful  (Cbird  Series) 

i6mo.      Cloth,  $1.00.      Decorated  cloth,  $1.25. 
Comprising  :  THE   WORLD   BEAUTIFUL  ;  THE   ROSE 
OF  DAWN  ;  THE  ENCIRCLING   SPIRIT-WORLD  ;  THE 
RING  OF  AMETHYST  ;  PARADISA  GLORIA. 
The  thoughtful  reader  who  loves  spiritual  themes  will  find  these 
oaget  inspiring.  —  Chicago  Inter-Ocean. 


The  Spiritual  Significance 

or,  Death  as  an  6wnt  in  Life  ,*?  s&  s& 

By  LILIAN  WHITING.  Author  of  "  The  World 
Beautiful,"  "  Boston  Days,"  etc.  i6mo.  Cloth, 
$1.00.  Decorated  cloth,  gilt  top,  £1.25. 
Comprising  :  THE  SPIRITUAL  SIGNIFICANCE  ;  VISION 
AND  ACHIEVEMENT;  BETWEEN  THE  SEEN  AND  THE 
UNSEEN  ;  PSYCHIC  COMMUNICATION  ;  THE  GATES 
OF  NEW  LIFE. 

It  suggests  and  hints  at  the  ultimate  significance  of  scientific  in- 
vestigation with  relation  to  the  totality  of  thought  in  a  very  fresh  and 
suggestive  way.  .  .  .  The  spirit  of  her  book,  like  that  of  its  prede- 
cessors, is  admirable.  —  The  Outlook. 

A  book  from  her  pen  means  new  flashes  of  insight,  a  revelation 
of  spiritual  truth  almost  Emersonian  in  kind.  —  Chicago  Chronicle. 


Sdorld  Beautiful 
in  Boofee     &     &    ,# 

By  LILIAN  WHITING.       i6mo.      Cloth,  gi.oo  net. 
Decorated  cloth,  $1.25  net. 

The  careful  and  repeated  reading  of  "  The  World  Beautiful  in 
Books"  would  be  a  liberal  education.  — Philadelphia  Telegraph. 

It  is  like  a  Greek  urn  filled  with  priceless  relics.  Hundreds  of 
brains,  ancient  and  modern,  are  daintily  picked  of  their  best  thoughts, 
and  there  is  scarcely  a  page  that  is  not  enriched  with  some  rifled  treas- 
ure. It  is,  in  fact,  concentrated  food  for  select  minds.  —  Chicago 
Post. 

To  read  it  is  like  being  taken  informally  into  a  great  assemblage 
of  poets,  romancers,  and  thinkers,  while  all  are  at  their  best,  and  being 
introduced  to  them  by  a  near  friend  of  all. — The  Era,  Philadelphia. 


Boston  Pays 


The  City  of  Beautiful  Ideals,  Concord  and  Its  Fam- 
ous Authors,  The  Golden  Age  of  Genius,  Dawn 
of  the  Twentieth  Century.  By  LILIAN  WHITING. 
Author  of  "The  World  Beautiful,"  etc.  With 
portraits  and  other  illustrations.  I  zmo.  Decorated 
cloth,  $1.50  net. 

All  the  famous  names  associated  with  Boston  pass  in  review  be- 
fore the  reader  of  this  apotheosis  of  the  intellectual  life  of  Massachusetts. 
—  The  Boston  Herald. 

The  book  is  full  of  fascination  of  the  intrinsic  sort,  by  virtue 
of  the  material  of  which  it  is  made  up,  and  Miss  Whiting  has  fulfilled 
her  task  with  special  literary  grace  and  discretion.  —  Albany  Argus. 

A  volume  to  place  on  the  same  shelf  with  the  "  Yesterdays 
With  Authors  "  of  the  late  James  T.  Fields  and  the  "  Literary  Friends 
and  Acquaintances"  of  William  D.  Howells.  —  Cleveland  Plain  Dealer. 


The  Life  Radiant 

By  LILIAN  WHITING.      i6mo.     Cloth,   $1.00  net. 
Decorated  cloth,  $1.25  net. 

In  this  book  Miss  Whiting  aims  to  portray  a  practical 
ideal  for  daily  living  that  shall  embody  the  sweetness  and 
exaltation  and  faith  that  lend  enchantment  to  life.  It  is,  in 
a  measure,  a  logical  sequence  of  "The  World  Beautiful," 
leading  into  still  diviner  harmonies. 


Little,  Brown,  &  Company,  publishers 

254  daohington  Street,  Boston, 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000  038  336     4 


